What is the effect of taxation on the supply and demand on equilibrium price?

Answer 1

The imposition of a tax on the commodity (or even on the factor of production) translates into increased costs of production for the producers. This is because the producers would require much more to produce a given unit of that commodity. In response to the law of supply, the quantity supplied of that commodity will decrease arising from increase in costs of production. This is equivalent to an in-ward or up-ward shift of the supply curve, from the original equilibrium position. The market re-gains equilibrium with a new higher equilibrium price and lower equilibrium quantity. The producer, however, has to compensate him or herself by adding the amount of the tax to the supply price. This suggests that the incidence of the tax is shared by both consumers and producers. The consumers pay the tax in form of increased prices of the commodity while producers will pay the tax in form of increased costs of production. The proportion of the tax paid by either the consumer or producer depends on the price elasticity of demand for the commodity. Ceteris paribus, the more price inelastic the demand for the commodity, the bigger the proportion of the tax paid by the consumers and vice versa.