New Delhi: It has been nine years since India replaced a maze of central and state levies with a single Goods and Services Tax on 1 July 2017.
A digital booklet from accounting firm Grant Thornton Bharat is looking at what has passed and what lies ahead since the nation’s biggest tax reform. Titled GST@9: The Rise of GST 2.0, the booklet states that the tax regime is on the cusp of a fundamental shift.
“At launch, GST was a filing system. Today, GST is a data system. And tomorrow, GST could become an intelligence system,” the booklet read.
That future is organised around a “Blueprint for GST 3.0”, structured around six pillars meant to move the regime from stabilisation toward structural transformation.
The first of these concerns is bringing key sectors that currently sit outside the GST net into its fold. The report envisions the inclusion of petroleum and electricity as central to what it calls “completing the GST chain”, alongside “seamless credit flow across sectors”.
A second pillar imagines a dramatically simplified compliance architecture, with businesses eventually being able to file a single GST return supported by an “auto-populated compliance” and “real-time ITC availability”.
Artificial intelligence features heavily in this vision. The report states that the system is already using risk radar, fraud scanner, registration shield, and invoice intelligence tools to catch problems before they escalate. It frames the shift, noting that there once used to be a system where the officer would identify the issue after years, and that the aim now is a system where risk is “identified before scrutiny begins”.
Globally, the report observes, “more audits may not characterise the future of GST; more notices or more compliance obligations may. Instead, it may be defined by systems that identify risks earlier, guide taxpayer behaviour proactively, and enable authorities to focus on exceptions rather than routine compliance.”
Dispute resolution is also due for an overhaul, with the report calling for “faceless audits”, “end-to-end digital litigation”, and “faster dispute resolution” to replace what it describes as a system where “lengthy disputes and inconsistent interpretations can increase uncertainty”.
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3 phases of GST
In the editor’s note, Tax Controversy Management Leader Manoj Mishra wrote that GST “has evolved from a tax harmonisation exercise into one of the most comprehensive records of India’s formal economic activity, capturing patterns of consumption, production and trade at an unprecedented scale.”
This blueprint is grounded in nine years of groundwork.
He added that the story now “extends well beyond taxation”, and has grown into a platform that influences business decision-making, strengthens supply-chain transparency, and provides policymakers with near real-time insights into economic activity.
The numbers back this: annual GST collections hit a record Rs 23.11 lakh crore in 2025-26, with a record monthly haul of Rs 2.42 lakh crore in April 2026, while the taxpayer base has grown from 60 lakh registrations in 2017 to 1.65 crore today.
The report traces this journey through three phases:
- The “foundation years” of 2017-2020 focused on “building a unified tax nation”
- A digitalisation phase from 2020-2023
- The current era of “intelligent administration” defined by IMS, GSTAT, AI analytics, risk-based scrutiny, and automated compliance
Among the year’s biggest milestones was the 56th GST Council’s rate rationalisation, collapsing four tax slabs into three: 5 per cent, 18 per cent, and 40 per cent.
Mishra called the parallel operationalisation of the GST Appellate Tribunal “one of the most consequential milestones in GST’s ninth year”.
“The maturity of the regime will be judged not by the volume of disputes it generates, but by the certainty and confidence it delivers,” he wrote.
The tribunal had logged 41,554 registered users and 22,233 e-filed appeals as of June 2026.
The Supreme Court also delivered a defining ruling this year, upholding GST on online gaming, fantasy sports, and casino transactions regardless of whether they involve skill or chance.
The report says that the judgment “validates one of the largest tax exposures in GST history, with industry-wide implications exceeding INR 2.5 lakh crore”.
Partner and Tax & Finance Consulting Leader Devesh Uniyal sums up the arc: “GST will remain far more than just a measure of economic activity; it will continue to be a cornerstone of our evolving economic framework.”
(Edited by Prasanna Bachchhav)