GST 2.0: What We Heard at the ICSSR Conclave

Notes from two days of debate on rate rationalisation, compliance, and India's next-generation indirect tax regime.

The GST 2.0 conclave brought together policy makers, industry, and academia at Mount Carmel to examine what a second-generation GST framework should look like.

Three themes recurred. First, rate rationalisation must be paired with dispute-resolution reform — the compliance burden is where small businesses feel the friction. Second, the input-tax-credit chain works best when technology is thin and predictable, not thick and bespoke. Third, sub-national fiscal autonomy is the political condition for any lasting reform.

Our students contributed a short paper on the compliance cost for micro-enterprises in Bengaluru; it drew a warm reception from the panel and will be revised for publication.

The ICSSR partnership will continue next year with a working paper series on state-level GST implementation.