Effect of corporate income tax on investment decisions of Indian manufacturing firms

This study is an attempt to empirically analyse the effect of corporate income tax on investment of manufacturing firms in India during 2005-2019, using the standard static panel model estimation techniques. It is found that the effective corporate tax rate has a negative and significant impact on the corporate investment. Moreover, the estimated effective tax elasticity is relatively low as compared to the magnitude found in other countries. The adverse impact of tax on investment is higher in private firms than in public firms and higher in pre-economic crisis period than in post-crisis period. The effective rate increases with age and size of firms. It is our hope that these results will be useful to policymakers and other stakeholders to take appropriate strategies to design the corporate tax policy such that it will not hinder business investment in India.