Earmarked taxes called cesses are mandatory taxes specifically collected for earmarked public purposes. This article looks at the conceptual understanding of earmarking and then uses the Indian experience as a case study to examine how earmarking works in practice and the ensuing challenges. The...

Compared with the traditional public-finance approach of a monolithic fully informed planner, earmarking of taxation is less likely to be optimal if a principal-agent setting is considered, where taxing and spending are performed by two separate agents which are monitored by the parliament. We...

Earmarked taxes (called cesses) imposed by the Indian federal government contribute to approximately one-tenth of the federal tax revenues. An analysis of their budgetary treatment reveals many inconsistencies including whether proceeds are maintained in the consolidated fund or extra-budgetary...