Impact and Incidence of tax evasion How poor tax morale and tax evasion impacted the Government’s spending ability during the pandemic

Impact and Incidence of tax evasion How poor tax morale and tax evasion impacted the Government’s spending ability during the pandemic

Researchers chose to conduct the survey in Mumbai and Thane, these being two prominent urban areas in Maharashtra which has the has been the highest contributor to Direct Tax Collections from Assessment Year 2014-15 to 2018-1943. Maharashtra also consistently tops other states when it comes to Goods and Services Tax Collection. Morsel translated the questionnaire to Marathi and Hindi, digitised them, provided in-house training to their enumerators and thereafter conducted the survey to record the data. The survey was undertaken physically by Morsel Research and Development Private Limited. Data was collected data from 517 persons in Mumbai and Thane in July 2022.50% of the participants mentioned that they were eligible for some relief measures announced by the government. Out of these people, nearly 77% were eligible for relief measures funded by the Central Government and the rest were eligible for some relief measures announced by their State Governments. Only 30% of the participants received some aid from the Government which was either in the form of free ration, deposits into their Jan Dhan Account, or some money under COVID19 relief schemes. This coupled with the factthat91% of the participants did not report any concession in taxes during the lockdown is concerning .Less than half of the participants believe that tax money has been put to good use in India. While 64% of the participants believed taxes have a functional value i.e., they are paid to serve a purpose such as better infrastructure, improving services to the populace, fostering development, etc., 36% felt that taxes were a mere obligation. It is argued that people that do not trust governments may think that tax evasion is justified

Location: Maharashtra

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