Five years of GST: Indirect tax reformed, but there's still some way to go

July 1 will mark five years of goods and services tax (GST) in India. Starting today, we track the journey through a series of reports

Goods and services tax (GST) was introduced five years ago to do away with a plethora of Central and state taxes in the hope of taking India to a transparent “one nation one tax” system and ushering in greater cooperative federalism.

It was expected to be a regime that would have revenue buoyancy, improve ease of doing business, and end hidden taxes. The GST story, however, has been mixed.

Revenues have started being buoyant, exemplified by the fact that collection remained above Rs 1.4 trillion for the third month on the trot in May. The numbers derived from the Union