GST cess as an opportunity

India's economy should benefit from an early termination of the compensation cess

The performance of the goods and services tax (GST) regime has looked up in the last couple of years. In 2018-19, a year after its launch in July 2017, GST collections were estimated at about 6.22 per cent of India’s gross domestic product (GDP). After weathering the headwinds of two rounds of politically-induced rate cuts without any rationalisation or reduction in the multiplicity of rates and the Covid pandemic, GST collections in 2021-22 rose to 6.3 per cent of GDP. A year later, it was further up at 6.6 per cent. And in the first half of 2023-24, GST collections