Application of Theory of Planned Behavior on Determinants of GST Compliance Behavior of GST Taxpayers: An Empirical Study from India

Abstract

The Indian government has recently transformed its indirect taxation system with the adoption of Goods and Service Tax (GST) in India. However, this taxation reform has a direct impact on the compliance behavior of the taxpayer as explicated by low GST revenue of the country. Since GST is a new taxation law in India, it become pertinent to explore the compliance behavior of GST taxpayers to proffer valuable suggestions and feedback to the concerned authorities for devising appropriate policies and strategies to comprehend and control the non-compliance behavior of the GST taxpayers. Therefore, the present study analyzed the compliance behavior of GST taxpayers by synthesizing the theory of planned behavior by collecting the data from 503 GST taxpayers using snowball random sampling with the application of exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis. The collected data was analyzed using exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis to confirm the theory of planned behavior to comprehend the compliance behavior of the GST taxpayers. The findings of the study assert that the theory of planned behavior explain the 60.1% variance of the total compliance behavior of the GST taxpayers. Moreover, the findings posit that the attitude, subjective norms and perceived behavioral control have a positive impact on the compliance behavior of the GST taxpayers. The proposed instrumental scale may be applied in future research studies to comprehend the compliance behavior of GST taxpayers at national and international level and therefore, this study may have major implications for the government, academicians and policy makers for improving the compliance behavior of the GST taxpayers.