India's biggest tax reform just turned 9.
And the verdict is in from 1,096 business leaders across 8 industries.
The good news? GST has basically won the room.
The bad news? The room is yelling about the same two things… again.
Deloitte's GST@9 survey just dropped — and the headline number is wild.
👉 Over 99% of businesses now have a positive or neutral view of GST.
Negative sentiment? Almost zero.
Nine years ago, this same tax was called chaos, a compliance nightmare, an MSME-killer.
Today, India Inc is calling it a trusted digital ecosystem.
That's a real glow-up.
Businesses love the system.
They just don't love how it's being run on three specific fronts.
Here's what the survey flagged loudest:
💸 77% said refund delays are still a major pain
⚖️ 57% are stuck fighting input tax credit (ITC) disputes
🔍 65% feel audits have a clear pro-revenue tilt
Translation: money is going in fast.
Money is coming back slow.
And when the taxman knocks, the benefit of the doubt rarely sits with the business.
Small businesses — the ones that screamed loudest in 2017 — are finally breathing easier.
Quarterly returns helped.
Higher thresholds helped.
But their wishlist is very specific:
🧾 Invoice-based ITC
📅 Quarterly payments
⏱️ Time-bound refunds that actually arrive on time
For a kirana supplier or a mid-sized exporter, a stuck refund isn't a line item.
It's payroll. It's inventory. It's survival.
This is where the survey gets genuinely forward-looking.
Business leaders aren't asking for lower rates.
They're asking for smarter plumbing.
AI-driven audits.
Auto-reconciliation.
Standardised processes across states.
Faster, formula-based refunds — not officer-discretion roulette.
Basically: let the system do the boring stuff, so humans stop fighting over it.
GST has crossed the acceptance milestone.
That fight is over.
The next fight is about trust at the operational layer — refunds, credits, audits.
Because a tax system everyone agrees with on paper…
still loses if working capital is held hostage in practice.
Nine years in, India Inc isn't asking for a new GST.
It's asking for the one we have to finally work the way it was promised.
That's the real benchmark for GST 2.0.
That's all for now!
