Impact of Goods and Service Tax on MSME Sector: A Study Using Artificial Neural Network and Multivariate Analysis of Variance

Abstract

Micro, small and medium enterprises (MSME) is one the vital sector of the developing economy. Changes in fiscal policy directly impact this sector the most. The present article aims to examine the impact of the recent Indian indirect system tax overhaul, that is, Goods and Service Tax (GST), on the MSME sector. We have employed multivariate analysis of variance and multi-layer perceptron neural network on the extensive data set for 60 months from April 2015 to March 2020. The empirical findings state that a significant increase has been observed in the MSMEs’ export, revenue generation and gross domestic product in the post-GST era. The findings may aid the emerging economies that are planning to alter tax systems to boost the MSME sector at the international level. JEL Codes: H20, L00, B22, C01, C45