GST rate changes since September 2025 have simplified the tax structure, but changes in revenue classification may be masking a weaker underlying revenue trend, top economists said. The analysis suggested that headline GST collections do not fully capture the decline in net revenues or the changing share of revenue accruing to states.
GST revenue performance may appear stronger on the surface than the underlying numbers suggest, as changes in tax classification have complicated comparisons across years. Arvind Subramanian, senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics and former Chief Economic Adviser to the Government of India, along with Josh Felman and Abhishek Anand, argued that GST “re-labelling” has obscured both the decline in revenue growth and the share accruing to states.