5 years on, work still in progress: The promises, challenges of GST regime

While tax evasion, technical glitches, and litigation continue to plague the indirect tax system, the revenue collections have picked up in recent months

Five years after the Goods and Services Tax (GST) came into force, the much-debated indirect tax regime seems to be finally stabilising. At least, the revenue numbers seem to suggest that.

However, contentious issues continue to plague the GST. It is still a truncated tax model, with items outside it yielding almost 40 per cent of the Centre’s indirect tax kitty sans customs duty in 2021-22 and over 40 per cent to the own tax revenues of the states during 2017-18 to 2020-21.

Besides, the states’ demand for extending compensation beyond this month is yet to be addressed, the practice