India Inc. embraces GST: 85 percent of respondents show positive sentiment as industry charts path for GST 2.0 — Deloitte GST@8 Survey
- Deloitte’s GST@8 survey reveals rising confidence driven by digitisation, policy responsiveness and compliance maturity; outlines urgent priorities for a tech-enabled, globally benchmarked, business-friendly GST 2.0 framework
- Respondents indicated a remarkable progression in their GST journey, from 59 percent in 2022 to 85 percent in 2025, underscoring growing confidence, compliance maturity and alignment with the tax framework
National, 23 June 2025, New Delhi: As India marks the completion of eight years since the Goods and Services Tax (GST) rollout, Deloitte India’s GST@8 survey captures a robust endorsement of the tax reform by businesses across sectors and sizes. The survey is based on 963 responses from senior corporate executives across eight industries. The respondents have expressed a strong sentiment to get to the next phase of GST reforms, keeping in line with the US$5 trillion economy.
“Eighth anniversary of the GST regime marks a significant milestone, with India Inc showing sustained optimism towards the tax framework. Citing survey, he points out that confidence in GST has steadily risen from 59% in 2022 to 85% in 2025 driven by improved compliance maturity, digitization and proactive engagement by policymakers. He emphasizes that automation of tax processes, especially e-invoicing and return auto-population, continues to deliver tangible benefits, and that industry acknowledges the government's collaborative approach in resolving concerns through timely clarifications.”
- Gokul Chaudhri, President, Tax, Deloitte India
“To recap, 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 forward-looking reforms, AI-powered compliance tools for using data, effective grievance redressal mechanisms, building a more agile, inclusive and positively transformative tax ecosystem."
- Mahesh Jaising, Partner and Indirect tax leader, Deloitte India
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. While most respondents acknowledged that GST circulars have improved clarity, a growing majority (67 percent in 2025 vs 55 percent in 2024) points to ongoing ground-level implementation challenges.
Survey results, while lauding the regime for having brought in efficiency and transparency, also seek revamp of the following aspects, in order of priority:
1) Measures for export liberalisation
2) GST rate rationalisation
3) Enabling a robust dispute resolution mechanism
4) Need for streamlining audits across administrations
5) Initiatives to help businesses unlock working capital
The survey makes key recommendations for the GST Council to consider. Foremost among them is prioritising export liberalisation, marking a shift from its fourth-place position last year to the top priority in 2025. This notable rise highlights a strategic move in industry expectations and a collective push for enhanced exports from India. The survey also reiterates its recommendation to rationalise GST rates across the supply chain.
The survey recommends a tailored policy approach on the MSME front. MSMEs (45 percent) advocate for rate rationalisation to enhance competitiveness. In comparison, large and very large enterprises (45 percent and 47 percent, respectively) prioritise the establishment of a more effective dispute resolution mechanism to support operational certainty.
“While progress has been encouraging, there is an increasing expectation of India Inc. for GST 2.0 to focus on positively evolving certain critical areas such as dispute resolution, audit simplification and GST rate rationalisation. The industry has identified time-bound closure of audits as the top priority this year, compared with third last year, highlighting the growing need for efficiency and certainty. Reforms aimed at empowering MSMEs, including e-invoicing for B2C transactions, input tax credit eligibility based on invoice receipt and rationalised rates under the composition scheme, are being viewed as positive enablers of inclusive growth. The Global Capability Centre (GCC) sector emerged as the most optimistic, with 90 percent of respondents expressing a positive perception of GST. In comparison, nearly half (48 percent) acknowledged the administration’s positive responsiveness at the policy level, a clear signal of confidence in the system’s adaptability and future-readiness,”
- Mahesh Jaising, Partner and Leader, Indirect Tax, Deloitte India
Expansive legal interpretations adopted by tax officials were a key barrier to the ease of doing business, especially for MSMEs. At the same time, the denial of export status impacted large corporates the most. Some of these crucial recommendations are expected to be key discussion points during the upcoming GST Council meeting in 2025.
From a tech evolution standpoint, the industry’s overwhelming ask has been for a unified taxpayer dashboard to monitor compliance rating, ITC mismatches and notices. From an MSME standpoint, relaxation in ITC matching requirements and quarterly tax payments are the top relief areas.
“The GST litigation landscape has also seen positive developments. Large and very large corporates welcomed streamlined investigation instructions that have enhanced clarity and consistency in enforcement. The consumer sector and GCCs responded positively to the digitisation of litigation, paperless filing of replies and reduced pre-deposit rate for filing appeals. While 67 percent of respondents (up from 55 percent in 2024) agreed that clarifications have improved overall transparency, they also emphasised the importance of addressing on-ground implementation challenges,”
- Mahesh Jaising, Partner and Leader, Indirect Tax, Deloitte India
To surmise, while the positive sentiment towards GST has been steadily growing, basis the survey there is an overwhelming request from the government to further enable ease of doing business by simplifying the registration process and assessment processes across the states.
About the survey
Deloitte India LLP conducted the GST@8 survey, engaging C-suite and C-1 level executives from various industries and organisation scales. The survey included 34 questions to capture focused insights across different aspects of GST implementation and reform. It collated 963 responses from 8 industries comprising consumer; technology, media and telecommunications; energy, resources and industrials; banking and other financial services; life sciences and healthcare; government and public services; private equity and venture capital sector; and global capability centre.
Key note:
Overall, based on the survey results, the Industry continues to showcase a positive sentiment (up from 59 percent in GST @5, 72 percent in GST @ 6, 84 percent in GST @7 and 85 percent in GST @8) towards the GST regime and applauds the collaborative approach followed by the policymakers, paving the way for a growth-friendly ecosystem.
About Deloitte
This press release has been issued by Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu India LLP
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