Editor’s Note
As India’s Goods and Services Tax (GST) marks eight years, we examine its role in simplifying tax compliance, reducing business costs, and fostering a more unified national economy.
8 Years of GST: On July 1, 2025, the Goods and Services Tax (GST) completed eight years. Introduced in 2017, GST is considered crucial for laying the foundation of a stronger and more integrated economy. With GST, tax compliance became simpler, business costs decreased, and goods could be transported from one state to another across the country without hassle. Prime Minister Narendra Modi introduced GST as ‘a guiding law for a new India’. Over the past eight years, GST has achieved tremendous success, with consistent growth recorded in GST collections. Let’s see what the data says?
According to official figures, GST collections have nearly doubled over the past 5 years, increasing from ₹11.37 lakh crore during the financial year 2020-21 to ₹22.08 lakh crore in the financial year 2024-2025. This rapid growth in GST collections reflects continuous improvement in compliance and economic activity.
The current GST structure has four main rate slabs: 5 percent, 12 percent, 18 percent, and 28 percent. These rates apply to most goods and services across the country. However, apart from the main slabs, three special rates have also been set. The GST rate on gold, silver, diamonds, and jewelry is 3 percent, on cut and polished diamonds it is 1.5 percent, and on rough diamonds it is 0.25 percent.
According to official data, along with GST collections, a tremendous surge has also been recorded in the number of active GST taxpayers, which increased to 1,51,80,087 as of April 30, 2025.
GST was introduced with the objective of ‘One Nation, One Tax’. With the advent of GST, a wide range of various indirect taxes were consolidated into one tax. GST replaced taxes like excise duty, service tax, and VAT. This brought uniformity to the tax system in the country.
Changes are being made to some GST rules from July 1, 2025. Under the new rules issued by the GST Council, the GSTR-3B form will be locked and the maximum limit for return filing has been restricted to three years. The aim of these changes is to increase transparency in return filing and reduce errors and fraud.