VAT - The Global Meaning

Globally, VAT is regarded as a tax that is best levied by the Central government - a condition that is difficult to meet in a federal finance system such as ours. It is true that 123 countries have adopted VAT, but most of them have unitary systems of government. VAT is a centrally-administered tax with a revenue-sharing mechanism. It is hard to visualise VAT as a revenue-neutral measure, or one where the states will not lose out in relation to the present system, in a federal set-up.

If VAT is Centrally administered, the tax base is quite wide, comprising imports, production and different stages of sales. If the base is divided between the Centre and states, the chain is broken, making tax evasion easier and affecting the states' tax base. In countries where VAT is administered by a federal government, revenue collection on imports accounts for a larger portion of total VAT revenues. In an IMF study of 22 developing countries, it was discovered that in about two-third of them, more than half the VAT revenue was collected from imports. In Pakistan and Bangladesh, VAT collection from imports was 64 per cent of the total proceeds from the tax. As tax evasion on bulk imports is difficult, it also helps in checking tax evasion at subsequent stages of the tax chain.