Did GST 2.0 Reduce Classification Disputes, or Relocate Them?

Chetan Chopra

Did GST 2.0 Reduce Classification Disputes, or Relocate Them?

Author(s)	Chetan Chopra
Country	India
Abstract	The GST (Indirect Goods and Services Tax) 2.0 reform of 22 September 2025 replaced India's four-rate schedule with two principal slabs. The government's stated rationale was that fewer rates would mean fewer classification disputes. This paper tests that argument against a census of 3,071 published Authority for Advance Ruling (AAR) decisions from July 2017 to May 2026, each coded by statutory issue under Section 97(2) of the CGST Act, 2017. Rulings decided up to and including December 2025 form the pre-reform window (a 3-month buffer from the reform date, September 2025, is maintained since the data set dates are of when the decision came, not when the GST ARA01 was filed). Those from January 2026 onward form the post-reform window. Classification shares across the two windows were compared using two-proportion z-tests and test the pre-reform annual series for linear trend to establish whether any post-reform change amounts to a genuine break, and not a pre-existing pattern. The classification share rose rather than fell, from 69.3 per cent before the reform to 77.8% per cent after it. The result is unchanged under the stricter coding rule. The pre-reform series shows no statistically significant trend (slope = +0.46 percentage points per year, p = 0.580), indicating that the post-reform increase is better understood as a break rather than a continuation of an earlier trend. On this record, the government's dispute-reduction claim is not supported. Classification questions occupy a larger share of the advance-ruling docket after the reform than before it, and the reform has worsened a second dispute front on the Inverted Duty Structure part.
Keywords	Economics, Public Finance, GST, Indirect Tax, Government Claim Verification
Field	Sociology > Economics
Published In	Volume 8, Issue 5, September-October 2026
Published On	2026-10-26

View / Download PDF File

About IJFMR Fees & Payment Current Issue Publication Archive	Submit Research Paper Track Submission Status Publication Guidelines Publication Ethics Peer Review & Plagiarism	Join as a Reviewer Editors & Reviewers Reviewer Referral Program Get Reviewer Membership Certi.	Website/Journal Policies Usage Policy Content Policies Privacy Policy

Contact Us		+91-9687-828-838	editor@ijfmr.com

International Journal For Multidisciplinary Research

A Widely Indexed Open Access Peer Reviewed Multidisciplinary Bi-monthly Scholarly International Journal

Did GST 2.0 Reduce Classification Disputes, or Relocate Them?

Share this