هزينه نهايي رفاه اجتماعي ناشي از مالياتهاي غيرمستقيم (ماليات بر مصرف در ايران در سال 1373)

Marginal Cost of Social Welfare from Indirect Taxes (Iran Consumer Tax in 1994)

In advanced economies, direct taxation is used as a tool of income and wealth redistribution. In other words, direct taxes are one of the effective elements of social justice in these countries. However, in developing countries like Iran, because of the lack of efficient administrative and executive tax ostablishments and due to economic and cultural conditions, direct taxation cannot act as a desirable distribution element. In this situation, indirect taxation with extraordinary expectation of distributive effect comes in line with direct taxation system. Present paper surveys the distributive effects of indirect taxes by calculating welfare marginal cost resulted from implementing indirect taxes. For this study eight product groups including: food, beverages and tobacco; clothing and shoes; housing, fuel and lights; durable goods; transportation and communications; health and medication; entertainment and education; and miscellaneous goods are selected. The results indicate that imposing tax on foods, housing, transportation and health groups that have general consumption, lead to higher marginal welfare cost compare to other groups of goods.