Dhirendra Kumar
New Delhi: Nine years after the rollout of the goods and services tax (GST) regime, businesses have largely embraced India’s biggest indirect tax reform, with 99% reporting a positive or neutral experience, according to a Deloitte India survey. As the tax regime matures, businesses are now shifting their focus to ‘GST 2.0’, seeking reducing disputes, speeding up of refunds, improving working capital and simplifying compliance.
The findings come at a time when GST collections continue to be robust. In May, the Centre and states together collected ₹1.94 trillion in gross GST revenue, before adjusting for refunds, up 3.2% from ₹1.88 trillion mopped up a year ago.
The survey covered 1,096 C-suite and C-1 level executives across banking and services, consumer, energy, resources and industrials, government and public services, life sciences and healthcare, global capability centres, private equity and venture capital, and technology, media and telecommunications. Respondents included micro small and medium enterprises (MSMEs), large and very large enterprises.
About 69% respondents identified compliance digitalization as the biggest benefit of GST, followed by chain optimization and gains from rate rationalization. The survey noted that confidence in has been driven by the digitalization of compliance, automation of tax processes and the stabilization of e-invoicing and e-way bill systems.
“GST has significantly improved compliance and transparency with the GST Network as India’s trusted tax framework. This digital backbone enables taxpayers, businesses and the government with real-time compliance and data-driven decision-making,” said Gokul Chaudhri, president, tax at Deloitte South Asia.
Businesses ranked interpretational clarity as their top policy priority, with 87% of the respondents seeking greater certainty in tax administration. This was followed by demands for improved working capital management (67%), uniform audits (61%) and faster refunds.
The survey also found strong support for centralized , simplified GST rates and allowing reverse-charge mechanism payments through input tax credit.
“The key industry expectations include the need to resolve interpretational ambiguities, improve working capital through streamlined refunds and credit utilization, address ITC disputes and implement a unified and harmonized audit process,” said Mahesh Jaising, partner and leader, indirect tax at Deloitte India.
Addressing inverted duty structures emerged as another major area of concern. Nearly 69% of respondents favoured expanding the refund formula to include all input taxes, while 63% supported further rate rationalization to reduce inversion-related issues. More than half sought refund benefits for accumulated input tax credit balances.
Technology is expected to play a bigger role in the next phase of GST reforms. Nearly 89% of respondents supported the use of artificial intelligence (AI) for tax data processing and reconciliation, while many sought a unified taxpayer dashboard, automatic tax utilization and improved integration across GST systems.
The survey found that priorities varied across sectors. Consumer and energy firms highlighted supply-chain optimization as the biggest from GST, while technology companies placed greater emphasis on compliance digitalization. Life sciences and healthcare companies cited benefits from competitive pricing following rate rationalization, while BFSI and global capability centres favoured greater automation and integrated digital infrastructure.
For MSMEs, quarterly return filing emerged as the most appreciated reform, with positive responses rising to 67% in 2026 from 12% in 2023. Smaller businesses also strongly supported invoice-based input tax eligibility, quarterly payment mechanisms and faster refunds to ease liquidity pressures, the survey said.
Some economists underscored the need for a more efficient refund mechanism under GST.
“Faster and more predictable GST refunds are critical for improving business cash flows. Delays in refunds increase working capital requirements and financing costs,” said Dharmveer, assistant professor, economics at the Delhi School of Economics. “A more streamlined refund mechanism would enhance liquidity, especially for MSMEs and exporters, and support investment and growth.”
GST was introduced on 1 July 2017 as India’s biggest indirect tax reform, replacing multiple central and state taxes with a single tax system. Since then, the regime has evolved with the rollout of e-invoicing, e-way bills and other digital compliance measures aimed at making tax administration easier and more transparent.