Journal Press India^®

The landscape of taxation reforms and issues have undergone significant changes in the light of developments like digitalization, artificial intelligence (AI) and the introduction of Goods and Services Tax (GST). This issue of VISION: Journal of Indian Taxation covers some of these contemporary developments and their impact on taxation along with other tax related issues.

An interesting paper by Ajit Kumar Singh examines whether non-consideration of an argument in appeal trigger rectificatory jurisdiction in Indian Tax Law. This paper seeks to argue that the non-consideration of an argument or any fact makes the appellate order erroneous, amenable only to the statutory remedies of appeal and any contrary construction will be in the teeth of the law laid down by the Supreme Court of India, including the judgement of its Constitution Bench. Hashik Madakkara and S. M. Jawed Akhtar delve upon a pertinent issue of fiscal discipline in states by analyzing the trends and patterns of important components of State Finance of Kerala from 2001-02 to 2023-24. The state of Kerala has been chosen as it suffers from persistently high levels of fiscal and revenue deficits and increased use of borrowed money to pay for revenue expenditures.

From state finance, we move to Central finance where the paper by Quiser Aman examines the GST revenue landscape in India by assessing the effects on government exchequer. The article examines the intricate dynamics of revenue distribution between the central and state governments, as well as the mechanisms in place to compensate for revenue shortfalls. Additionally, the article scrutinizes the distinct contributions of various business types to GST revenue. The author observes that GST has streamlined India’s indirect tax landscape by introducing transparency and efficiency.

This issue has two papers in the realm of corporate taxation. Sayed Qudrat Hashimy and Nyamwero Bwire Nyamwero examine the implication of corporate income taxation on foreign direct investment in Tanzania. Tanzania, like many other developing nations, faces the challenge of attracting foreign investments while also collecting tax revenue to support national development. The study underscores the importance of periodic policy reviews, tailored incentives, and transparency in enhancing FDI inflows. In another paper by Arjuna Kumar Maharana and Priyabrata Panda, the authors conduct a comprehensive bibliometric analysis for the landscape of corporate tax reforms. The authors observe an increase in the number of publications in the area of corporate tax reforms, with the primary focus on tax rate changes and realted policies.

With AI assuming an increasingly important role in business as well as policy issues, the paper by Ikvinderpal Singh and Nidhi Aggarwal explores the role of AI chatbots and its potential to revolutionize in income tax prediction in India. The paper examines the benefits and challenges of employing AI chatbots for income tax prediction, their potential impact on the accuracy and efficiency of tax calculations, and their role in simplifying the tax filing process.

An insightful ‘Perspective’ by Shifa S. looks at the allegations of Digital Service Tax being discriminatory against U.S. companies, and elucidates how the allegations were a mere tool to impose retaliatory tariffs to coerce countries into accepting the Two Pillar Solution. The paper aims to shed light on how the Two Pillar Solution is being put forth as an endeavour to attain a global taxation system, while its design implies otherwise. Another interesting ‘Perspective’ by Geetanjali Phadke examines the question of ‘can a tax administration or a court retrospectively treat independent parties to an independent transaction as Associated Entities to a transaction which would then be deemed as a Related Party transaction?’ The paper looks into the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal of the Bangalore Bench in India that laid down a crucial verdict in relation to a question of law that arose in 2018 concerning the tax assessment year 2014-2015.

With papers on both contemporary as well as classical themes of taxation, we hope that the readers find this issue of VISION interesting and insightful.

Wishing all our readers a Happy and Prosperous 2024!

Dr. Prasant Kumar Panda
Dr. M. M. Sury
Editors