GST@8: Deloitte survey shows growing confidence in levy

As the goods and services tax (GST) regime turns eight on July 1, a new survey has revealed that confidence in the indirect tax levy has risen over the years while there is a call for more reforms.

Deloitte’s GST@8 survey reveals rising confidence driven by digitisation, policy responsiveness and compliance maturity with as many as 85% of respondents in 2025 underscoring growing confidence, compliance maturity and alignment with the tax framework as against only 59% in 2022.

The survey is based on 963 responses from senior corporate executives across eight industries. “The industry has praised the government’s top-performing reforms around automating tax compliance, including auto-population of return formats, stabilised e-invoicing and e-way bill functionalities,” Deloitte India said in a release on Monday.

Gokul Chaudhri, President, Tax, Deloitte India said, “Eighth anniversary of the GST regime marks a significant milestone, with India Inc showing sustained optimism towards the tax framework.”

While most respondents acknowledged that GST circulars have improved clarity, 67% of the respondents pointed to ongoing ground-level implementation challenges from 55% in 2024.

The survey found that respondents have sought a revamp in various aspects of GST with measures for export liberalisation being the key focus area followed by GST rate rationalisation, enabling a robust dispute resolution mechanism, streamlining audits across administrations and initiatives to help businesses unlock working capital.

Mahesh Jaising, Partner and Indirect tax leader, Deloitte India noted that 2024 was a blockbuster year of GST reforms, which included the streamlining of the investigation process, clarifications specifically around valuation, stemming unwanted litigation, export-focused clarifications, measures to reduce working capital and a reduction in the quantum of pre-deposits. “In this backdrop, to fully realise the objective of GST 2.0, India must prioritise forwardlooking reforms, AI-powered compliance tools for using data, effective grievance redressal mechanisms, building a more agile, inclusive and positively transformative tax ecosystem,” he added.