Public Finance and Fiscal Policy — Policy Reforms

Entry	Year	Description	Impact
101st Amendment Act	2016	Introduced the Goods and Services Tax (GST) in India, replacing a multitude of central and state indirect taxes. It inserted new Articles 246A, 269A, and 279A into the Constitution, defining the powers of the Union and States to levy GST and establishing the GST Council.	Revolutionized India's indirect tax structure, creating a unified national market, reducing cascading effects, and significantly altering Centre-State financial relations by establishing the GST Council as a cooperative federal body for tax policy decisions.
97th Amendment Act	2011	Gave constitutional status and protection to cooperative societies. While not directly about public finance, it indirectly impacts the financial autonomy and governance of cooperative banks and credit societies, which are part of the broader financial ecosystem and can be involved in public sector lending or welfare schemes.	Strengthened the cooperative movement, potentially influencing financial inclusion and local economic development, which can have indirect fiscal implications for state governments and rural finance.
73rd and 74th Amendment Acts	1992	Granted constitutional status to Panchayati Raj Institutions and Urban Local Bodies, respectively. These amendments mandated the establishment of State Finance Commissions (SFCs) to recommend the distribution of state taxes, duties, tolls, and fees between the state and local bodies, and grants-in-aid to local bodies.	Significantly deepened fiscal decentralization by empowering local self-governments with greater financial autonomy and ensuring a more structured devolution of funds from states to local bodies, thereby impacting the overall fiscal federal structure of India.