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Federalism
Cesses and surcharges reached a quarter of Union tax revenue in 2020-21
Cesses and surcharges are not shared with states under the Finance Commission formula. Their share of the Union's gross tax revenue was 10.4% in 2011-12 and 13.5% in 2014-15 (15th Finance Commission, Table 3.8). It rose to 19.9% in 2018-19, with the GST compensation cess included from 2017-18, and peaked at 24.4% in 2020-21 (20.2% without the compensation cess). It has fallen since, to 18.0% in 2024-25 and 14.3% in the 2026-27 budget estimate (Union Receipt Budgets).
What follows. Revenue raised as a cess stays with the Union, so the cess share measures how much of the tax take sits outside the pool that states share in.
One of 37 readings of the dataset, rebuilt whenever the data are refreshed. Data vintage 2026-10-10. Cite as Raman, V.S., Some Perspective: India's Political Economy, 2004-2026, someperspective.info, CC BY 4.0.