2017-04: Incidence of value added taxation on inequality: Evidence from Sri Lanka (Working paper)

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Sivashankar, P.
Rathnayake, RMPS
Jayasinghe, Maneka
Smith, Christine
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Rohde, Nicholas

Naranpanawa, Athula

Date
2017
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26 pages

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Abstract

Tax income plays an integral part in the generation of government revenue. Nevertheless, an increase in tax rates, more specifically those of the consumption tax such as Value Added Tax (VAT) can have an adverse impact on the welfare of households, particularly in developing countries with a higher proportion of poor households. This paper investigates the extent to which recent changes in the VAT rate and the list of VAT exempted goods in Sri Lanka affect the level of inequality in the country, with a particular attention given to an investigation of the progressivity (or the regressivity) of the adjusted VAT scheme. Using the Household Income and Expenditure Survey (HIES) data for 2012/13, the Gini coefficient and the Theil index are estimated to analyse the impact of VAT revisions on inequality. The Kakwani progressivity index is estimated to investigate the progressive/regressive nature of the VAT in Sri Lanka. The results reveal that the recent VAT revisions do not have an adverse impact on the level of inequality and, despite these revisions, the VAT remains progressive in the context of Sri Lanka. This is because the VAT continues to exempt food items, on which the poorest households spend a large proportion of their income. The findings of this study provide important policy insights on the impact of consumption tax revisions in the context of developing countries.

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Copyright © 2010 by author(s). No part of this paper may be reproduced in any form, or stored in a retrieval system, without prior permission of the author(s).

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Economics and Business Statistics

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H24 - Personal Income and Other Nonbusiness Taxes and Subsidies; includes inheritance and gift taxes

H22 - Taxation and Subsidies: Incidence

H31 - Fiscal Policies and Behavior of Economic Agents: Household

D31 - Personal Income, Wealth, and Their Distributions

C18 - Methodological Issues: General

Inequality

Value Added Tax

Tax incidence

Kakwani index

Gini coefficient

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