GST completes eight years: 'Good for govt, and for business'

With 15 million registered taxpayers and robust growth in the revenue receipts, the Goods and Services Tax (GST) ecosystem is continuing to evolve with a focus on ease of doing business, better compliance and wider economic participation, the finance ministry said on Monday as the indirect tax system completed eight years.

- Gireesh Chandra Prasad

Annual revenue from GST, introduced on 1 July 2017, has doubled to ₹22.08 trillion in FY25 from five years ago and micro, small and medium enterprises are finding easier access to credit, the ministry said. In FY21, the combined Central and state GST revenue collection was ₹11.37 trillion.

The ministry's emphasis on ease of doing business, compliance and wider economic participation comes at a time Central and state governments are preparing for reforms in the GST architecture by reducing the slabs and reallocating goods and services, which are on the 12% slab, to 5% and 18%.