Investigating the compliance behavior of GST taxpayers: An extension to theory of planned behavior

• Published date: 01 August 2024
• Author: Shubham Garg,Karam Pal Narwal,Sanjeev Kumar
• Date: 01 August 2024
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1002/pa.2936

RESEARCH ARTICLE

Investigating the compliance behavior of GST taxpayers:

An extension to theory of planned behavior

Shubham Garg | Karam Pal Narwal | Sanjeev Kumar

Haryana School of Business,

Guru Jambheshwar University of Science and

Technology, Hisar, Haryana, India

Correspondence

Shubham Garg, Haryana School of Business,

Guru Jambheshwar University of Science and

Technology, Hisar, Haryana, India.

Email: shubhamgarg1230@gmail.com

The government around the globe are striving to improve their public finance to meet

their public expenditures and for sustainable development of their economies. How-

ever, the capability of the governments to generate adequate revenue is limited and

refrained by numerous factors. The non-compliance behavior of GST taxpayers is

one of the major factors attributed to this phenomenon. Therefore, this paper

endeavors to frame and validate a comprehensive instrumental scale with the appli-

cation of the extended Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) for analyzing the determi-

nants of compliance behavior of GST taxpayers in India. The current study has

adopted the quantitative design through exploratory and confirmatory studies by

incorporating qualitative semi-structured interviews with 100 GST consultants to val-

idate the instrumental scale. The study has collected a random sample of 339 GST

taxpayers using snowball random sampling. Meanwhile, the study has employed the

Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) and Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) for analyz-

ing the collected data. The result affirms six major factors in determining the compli-

ance behavior of GST taxpayers explaining 65.166% of the total variance. The

findings have instituted perceived complexity, trust and moral obligation in addition

to three major constructs of TPB theory namely attitude behavior, subjective norms

and perceived behavioral control of the GST taxpayers. The results explicate that the

compliance behavior of GST taxpayers is a dynamic and multifaceted phenomenon

and it is critical for GST authorities to comprehend the compliance behavior of GST

taxpayers. The result explicates that there is a need to simplify and rationalize the

GST system in India to increase voluntary compliance of taxpayers. The results also

endorse for building trust between GST taxpayers, GST authorities and the state.

This study may act as a baseline for formulating policies and strategies on GST in

India. There is hardly any national and international study that has applied the

extended theory of planned behavior for studying the antecedents of compliance

behavior of GST taxpayers.

KEYWORDS

antecedents, compliance behavior, goods and service tax, India, theory of planned behavior

1|INTRODUCTION

Taxes refer to the compulsory exaction of resources from the public

by public authorities to the government to enable them to render

public services and to ensure horizontal equity in resources across dif-

ferent sections of society. But it usually excludes some compulsory

transfers from the public, that is, penalties, fines, social security contri-

butions, and so forth. It is an essential source of funding for spending

Received: 26 February 2024 Revised: 19 June 2024 Accepted: 19 June 2024

DOI: 10.1002/pa.2936

J Public Affairs. 2024;24:e2936. wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/pa © 2024 John Wiley & Sons Ltd. 1of13

https://doi.org/10.1002/pa.2936