This document provides an overview of indirect taxes in India prior to the Goods and Services Tax (GST) era. It discusses the types of indirect taxes in India including Value Added Tax (VAT) and its variants. It outlines key features of indirect taxes such as the taxable event, incidence and impact, regressive nature, and role in generating government revenue. The document also discusses provisions in the Indian Constitution related to tax authority and lists some major defects in the indirect tax structure like multiplicity of taxes, lack of cross-utilization of taxes, obstructed movement of goods, and multiple compliance requirements.

1. INDIRECT TAXES IN
INDIA : PRE-GST ERA

2. CONTENT
Types of taxes in India
Features of Indirect Tax
Provision in Constitution regarding taxations.
VAT, concept and various method of computation.
Variant of VAT
Defects in structure of indirect tax prior to GST

3. Direct Tax
 A Direct Tax is paid directly by an individual or organization to
an imposing entity. The burden of direct tax cannot be shifted
by the tax payer to someone else.
Indirect Tax
 The indirect Taxes are Imposed on goods and services The
immediate liability to pay Indirect tax lies on the
manufacturer/service providers/seller, but the burden is
ultimately transferred to the consumer.
TYPES OF
TAXES

4. FEATURES OF INDIRECT TAX
Taxable Event
Incidence and Event
Impact of Indirect Tax
Regressive Taxation
Promote welfare.
Major Source of revenue
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Taxable Event.
Incidence and Impact.
Impact of Indirect Tax.
Regressive Taxation.
Promote welfare.
Major Source of revenue.
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5. 1. Taxable Event
The Indirect Taxes are levied on purchase/sale/manufacture of good and
provision of services.
2. Incidence and Impact
The Incidence and Impact fall on two different persons. It means tax burden is
shifted by suppliers to buyer or recipient of goods or services.
3. Impact of Indirect Tax
The Indirect Tax on goods and services increases its price. This leads to
Inflationary trend.

6. 4. Regressive Taxation
The Indirect Tax do not depend on paying capacity as tax payable on
commodity is same whether it's purchased by a poor man or a rich man.
5. Major source of Revenue
The contribution of Indirect Tax to Total Tax revenue is more than 50%.
Therefore is the major sourse of revenue for the Government.
6. Promote welfare
The harmful or sin products like alcohol, tobacco, etc. may be taxed at
higher rate. This practice not only discourages consumption of such goods but
also increases the revenue of the State.

7. INDIAN
CONSTITUTION
• (a) The Union Government
• (b) The State Government
• (c) The Local Government
India has a three-tier federal structure,
comprising the following:
The power to levy taxes and duties is with the
distributed among the three tiers of
Government, in accordance with the provision of
the Indian Constitution. The Constitution
consists of a preamble, 25 parts containing 448
articles and 12 Schedules

8. 2 PROVISIONS OF CONSTITUTION
REGARDING TAXATION
Thee power to levy and collect taxes emerges from the Constitution of India. The following are the significant provisions of the
constitution regarding taxation:
1. Article 265: It states that no tax shall be levied or collected except by authority of law. In fact, it prohibits arbitrary
collection of tax.
2. Article 246: The authority to enact law and levy taxes and duties is given by constitution vide Article 246. The Parliament
may make laws for the whole of India or any part of the territory of India, the State legislature may make laws for whole or
part of the State.
3. Seventh Schedule (to Article 246): The Seventh Schedule contains three lists which enumerate the matters under which
the union and the State Governments have the authority to make laws.
a) List I (Union List): The Central Government has the exclusive right to make laws in respect of any matter covered in this list. Parliament makes
law in this regard. Some other items in List I are defense of India, naval, military and air forces, atomic energy and mineral resources, central
bureau of intelligence and investigation, railways, highways, currency, RBI, post office saving bank, taxes on income other than agricultural
income, duties of customs, corporation tax, etc.
b) List II (State List): It contains the matters in respect of which the State Government as the exclusive right to make laws. These matters include
public order, police, local government, public health and sanitation, hospital, burials and burial grounds, cremation ground, libraries, water,
fisheries, betting and gambling, etc.
c) List II (Concurrent List): It contains the matters in respect of which both Central1& State Governments have powers to make laws. This list
includes criminal laws, criminal procedure, marriage and divorce, contracts including partnership, agency, bankruptey and insolvency, trust
and trustees, trade unions, industrial and labour disputes, etc.

9. VAT
The Value Added Tax (VAT) was
introduced in India in 2005. It is a multi
point system of taxation on sale of goods
wherein a mechanism is provided to
grant credit for tax paid on inputs, Under
VAT, the tax is collected in Stages an
transactions involving sale of goods. The
Input Taxis rebated against output tax.
Under the VAT system, the net tax
payable is calculated in the following
manner:
VAT = Tax collected on sales-Tax paid on
purchases

10. WHAT IS CASCADING EFFECT
The Cascading effect implies charging tax on tax.
In other words, at the time of levy of tax, the total value is considered which
is inclusive of all taxes paid up to the point.
In this process, the elect of taxation signifies as at each leval tax is calculated
on value, which includes tax already levied and paid .The charging of tax is
called Cascading Effect of tax.

11. VARIANT OF VAT
Gross Product Variant allows deduction of taxes paid on all purchases of
raw material and its consumption, but no deduction is allowed on taxes
paid on capital input.
Gross Product Variant :
The income variant of vat on other hand allows for deductions on the
purchase of raw material and components as well as depreciation on
capital goods.
Income Variant :
This variant of tax allows deduction for all business purchases including
capital assets. Thus investment is deductible in calculating value added.
Consumption Variant :
The consumption variant is the most used variant of the VAT. Several countries of Europe and the other continents
has adopted the variant as it does not effect dicision regarding investment because the tax on capital goods is also
available foe set-off against the VAT liability.

12. METHODS FOR COMPUTATION OF VAT
Additional method:
1
This method aggregates all the factor payment (excluding
value of material ) including profits to arrive at the total value
addition on which tax rate is applied to calculate the tax.
Invoice method :
2
this the most common and popular method of calculating the
liability in which tax is imposed on each stage of sales value.
Its is also known as ‘Tax credit Method’ or ‘Voucher Method’.
Cost Subtraction Method :
3
Under this method , tax is charged only on the value added at
each stage of the sales of goods. Since the total value of goods
sold is not taken into account the question of grant of claim for
set off or tax credit does not arise.

13. MAJOR DEFECTS IN
THE STRUCTURE OF
INDIRECT TAXES
PRIOR TO GST
Multiplicity of Indirect Taxes
Non-Availability of cross utilization
of taxes
Obstructed movement of goods
Multiple Repetitive Compliances
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14. THANK YOU