Insight that moves business

Recent GST and customs developments bring changes to tax compliance, input tax credit (ITC), refunds, exports and dispute resolution.

Grant Thornton Bharat’s PolicyCast is your window into policy, tax, and regulatory developments. Each episode features expert perspectives on issues that matter to businesses, individuals, and the wider economy.

The 57th GST Council Meeting, held on 8 October 2026, recommended several significant process reforms resulting in ease of doing business, reducing litigation, and addressing the long-standing concerns of the taxpayers.

After a gap of more than a year, industry had high expectation from the 57th GST Council Meeting to pave the way for next phase of India's GST journey and this anticipation has been well justified.

Tax reforms are often celebrated for what they remove from the price tag, but their greater success lies in what they take off the balance sheet.

The 57th GST Council Meeting held on 8 October 2026 could well be remembered as a watershed moment in the evolution of India’s GST regime.

As GST jurisprudence continues to mature, recent developments highlight the growing importance of consistency, procedural safeguards and commercial sensibility in the application of tax laws.

Corporate guarantees, traditionally used as instruments of group financing and treasury support, have emerged as a recurring area of tax controversy, evolving from predominantly a ‘consideration’ centric debate under the erstwhile service-tax regime to the broader questions of supply, valuation and point of tax under GST.

Appeals under GST carry a statutory cost of entry. A taxpayer challenging an adverse order must first make the prescribed pre-deposit; once this condition is met, recovery of the balance demand is ordinarily deemed to be stayed until disposal of the appeal.

The GST credit mechanism rests on the premise that tax paid at the preceding stage should ordinarily flow as input tax credit, leaving businesses liable to tax only on their value addition.

Judicial rulings, regulatory clarifications, and policy updates continue to shape indirect tax decision-making.

India’s IPO market was active in FY26, supported by strong domestic participation, but IPO readiness became more important than ever. Investors were not simply backing market momentum.

As GST enters its tenth year, the anticipated 57th GST Council meeting assumes significance far beyond another round of tax rate changes or procedural amendments.

The July 2026 edition of the GST Compendium discusses important updates under the GST, Customs, FTP, FTA and SEZ framework, along with significant judicial pronouncements, advance rulings and key policy developments.

Nine years ago, GST replaced a fragmented web of excise duty, VAT, service tax and local levies with a single promise of ‘one nation, one tax’. By 2026, GST has evolved into a critical pillar of India's formal economy, creating a digital trail of transactions across sectors and supply chains while providing policymakers with an increasingly sophisticated and near real-time understanding of economic activity.

GST 2.0 reflects the transformation of India’s tax framework from a system focused on harmonisation to one driven by intelligence and automation. Between 2017 and 2020, GST concentrated on building a unified national market through rate rationalisation, return stabilisation, and the introduction of e-way bills. The subsequent phase accelerated digitalisation through e-invoicing, Aadhaar authentication, automated return systems, and technology-led compliance mechanisms.