ISSN (Print) - 0012-9976 | ISSN (Online) - 2349-8846

Articles by Renuka ViswanathanSubscribe to Renuka Viswanathan

Efficient Transfer of Funds for Centrally-Sponsored Schemes

The ongoing dispute between the union and state governments and among the states themselves regarding funds for centrally-sponsored schemes has severely affected the adoption of sound accounting and monitoring practices. It is essential to restore them in an amicable and acceptable manner. This article examines various issues concerning the accounting mechanism and attempts to develop a comprehensive systemic solution to the problems.

An Essential Handbook on VAT

on VAT The Economic of Value Added Tax (Theory and Practice) by Sukumar Mukhopadhyay; Centax Publications, New Delhi, 2005;
RENUKA VISWANATHAN The most significant tax reform at the state level since independence is clearly the introduction of value added tax (VAT). Movement towards a more rational and economically neutral system of consumption taxation in a federal country in which sub-national governments are constitutionally empowered to levy taxes on goods and some services calls for consultation and compromise, consensus and conflict resolution among states as a group as well as between federal and provincial governments. This explains the delay of more than a decade between conceptualisation of the idea of a dual VAT for the country and formal enactment of state VAT laws and rules.

'Mr and Mrs Iyer'

'Mr and Mrs Iyer' successfully depicts stereotyping and prejudice by playing up a stereotyped environment and the use of typecast characters. Equally important, it is a growing-up tale. It traces the movement of a woman's consciousness in the course of a single journey, the consequences of one decisive and unexpected action.

Taxation and Poverty Eradication

Development, Poverty and Fiscal Policy: Decentralisation of Institutions edited by M Govinda Rao; Oxford University Press, New Delhi, 2002; pp xvi+358, Rs 595 .

Are We Heading Towards a Destination-Based VAT?

There will be, it has been announced, a shift from the current system of commodity taxation at the state level to value added taxation from April this year. This paper considers whether what is planned for implementation is in consonance with the core concepts of (destination-based) value added taxation and assesses the extent to which the present intiatives will lay a sound foundation for eventual modernisation of the indirect tax structure at the state level. The study has been made from the perspective of the existing commodity tax structure of Karnataka.

Development, Empowerment and Domestic Violence

The systematic underestimation of women's work and its value remains a core developmental issue. Despite the attempt by leading women economists to develop an alternate set of indicators that would focus on women's economic, political and professional participation, such measures remain inadequate in countries where class differentials remain acute and women remain mute victims to a subverted social system.

Human Development Report Human Development Report

The Madhya Pradesh government has published a second human development report, the first was published in 1995. While it publishes data, the report does not analyse the data to draw any conclusions. The data tell us that higher incomes do not always yield human development, and that higher human development does not always mean equal benefit to men and women.

NINTH FINANCE COMMISSION S AWARD V-Enforcing Fiscal Discipline

Enforcing Fiscal Discipline Renuka Viswanathan The Second Report of the Ninth Finance Commission is generously peppered with ominous allusions to prudence, tax effort, discipline, etc. Without saying so directly, the commission appears to have accepted the undeniable fact that its predecessors had not paid sufficient attention to encouraging fiscal restraint, despite professions to the contrary It is, therefore, useful to examine the commissions's report from this specific viewpoint and determine to what extent the commission has lived up to its own objectives of promoting fiscal discipline and discouraging excesses.

Financial Management in States-Role of Finance Commission

This paper compares the actual fiscal behaviour of the states as against that envisaged for them by the Finance Commission. It looks at deviations from the commission's projections of revenue receipts of 14 non-special category states. Deficits/surpluses that actually emerged as against those that were expected are analysed, A closer look is taken of tax revenue by comparing the actual growth rates of four major state taxes with the rates adopted by the Eighth Finance Commission. The methodology adopted by the Ninth Finance Commission is evaluated from the point of view of its responsibility of promoting resource mobilisation and economy in expenditure. Some approaches to building up an incentive/disincentive structure that would reward financial discipline and penalise profligacy are examined.

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