With headline rate changes largely settled, India’s GST Council is turning to blocked input tax credits, delayed refunds, registration hurdles and inconsistent audits to reduce costs for businesses.
India’s Goods and Services Tax Council is set to use its latest meeting to push the system further away from rate tinkering and towards day-to-day relief for businesses, with tax specialists arguing that the next phase of reform should focus on compliance, refunds and administrative simplicity rather than headline changes to slabs. The Hindu reported that officials did not expect the council’s October 8 meeting in New Delhi to revisit rates, after the wide-ranging changes approved at its previous gathering in September 2025.
That shift reflects a broader view that the GST framework has largely settled after nine years in operation, with revenues stable enough for policymakers to take on problems that have long raised costs for companies. Deloitte India’s MS Mani told The Hindu that stronger collections over recent months create room to consider measures such as easing input tax credit restrictions, speeding up refunds for service providers and tackling other frictions without immediate concern over a hit to revenue.
Among the changes under discussion are automatic or faster refunds, especially for exporters, and steps to stop the build-up of blocked input tax credit, which businesses say ties up working capital. Rahul Ahluwalia of the Foundation for Economic Development told The Hindu that these process fixes matter because they affect firms across the economy, not just in isolated sectors. Prabhat Ranjan of Nexdigm added that certainty is often as important as the rate itself, pointing to persistent disputes over classification, valuation, place of supply and procedural rules that can leave businesses facing litigation, provisioning burdens and delayed commercial decisions.
The council is also expected to look at technology-led simplification, including a more unified registration and audit framework and wider use of automation. According to The Hindu, one proposal would let businesses register in a single state and supply goods or services across India, rather than securing multiple registrations. Nitin Vijaivergia of Price Waterhouse & Co said a harmonised audit system across registrations would reduce duplicate information requests and inconsistent tax positions, while allowing authorities to target scrutiny more precisely.
Other reports on the meeting suggest the council has already moved decisively into this reform track. The Statesman said approvals included faster refunds, easier registration and fewer direct interactions with tax officers, while Business Standard reported that Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman described earlier changes as having addressed almost all outstanding rate and process issues. Those accounts, taken together with later coverage of the meeting, point to a clear policy direction: a maturing GST regime now being asked to work more cleanly, more predictably and with less friction for taxpayers.
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