GST Transformation - The Road Ahead

A more efficient GST compliance can better enable India's march toward a $5 trillion economy.

In brief

• Consistent uptick of the monthly GST collections suggest a remarkable progress.
• Going forward the need to streamline and rationalize the five-tier tax rate structure, availment of input tax credits and inclusion of the remaining items in GST may be imperative.  
• Any modern system of taxation also needs an effective, timely, and robust dispute resolution mechanism.

1 July 2017 was an epoch-making date in India’s history of tax administration. The journey towards ‘One Nation, One Tax’ in the form of a single Goods and Services Tax (‘GST’) saw many ups and downs over the fifteen-odd years prior to its successful culmination in 2017. No other country with a comparable size of economy and breadth of the market has ever attempted such a transformational change, and it is to the credit of the Government that it was able to forge a working consensus with opposition ruled states to get GST to at last see the light of the day.

From a tentative start, GST has now stabilized, both from a technology as well as from a collection perspective as seen in the consistent uptick of the monthly GST collections from an average of below INR 1 lakh crore per month in the initial three years.