A parliamentary committee has argued that the NTA’s problems are institutional, not merely procedural — and that the agency running India’s largest entrance tests must be rebuilt in its staffing, infrastructure, accountability and purpose.

• Capacity deficit: only 23 of 39 sanctioned posts are filled, all on deputation with two-to-three-year tenures — too short to build examination expertise.
• Leadership by additional charge: between 23 June 2024 and 1 April 2026 the Director General’s post was held as an additional charge by officers with heavy primary duties.
• Outsourcing as the weak link: sub-contracted private centres, printers and vendors are the recurring points of failure; blacklisted firms continue to win contracts elsewhere.
• Contested record: the Department told the Committee no paper leak had occurred in an NTA exam from 2017 to 2025; some members disagreed, and there is no official public record of leak cases and their prosecution.
• Data blind spot: NTA records registrations by State but not success rates, so it cannot detect access or quality gaps.
• Idle surplus: a ₹590 crore surplus sits in fixed deposits while government CBT infrastructure remains inadequate.

• An appropriate parliamentary framework to make the NTA accountable to Parliament.
• A permanent in-house cadre — psychometrics, examination security, digital infrastructure, data analytics, logistics; Central Staffing Scheme posts only as a supplementary leadership layer.
• No additional-charge appointments to key posts; State Government representation on the Governing Body.
• A research wing of education researchers for longitudinal studies of whether NEET, CUET and UGC-NET serve their purpose.
• Refocus on admission tests to higher education only, as the HLCE advised — exit recruitment examinations.
• An independent oversight mechanism, outside the NTA, to audit security protocols and investigate grievances, reporting to the Ministry.

• A large, continuously updated question bank built by vetted experts from IITs, AIIMS, IIMs; conflict-of-interest screening (coaching links, relatives taking the exam).
• Papers drawn digitally from the bank close to the exam date; final vetters quarantined until the exam ends.
• A public National Registry of Blacklisted Examination Vendors; contracting with a listed entity to be dealt with under the Public Examinations Act, 2024.
• Only government-owned centres and NTA-owned printing presses; an in-house cybersecurity team and AI tools to flag anomalous response patterns.
• A public report on all NTA exams and related investigations; UPSC-style transparency in results.

The Committee backs the HLCE’s phased move to CBT and wants NEET-UG — the main pen-and-paper outlier — shifted too, but only after infrastructure and equity safeguards are in place.

• Day-of-exam fixes: a separate 15-minute window for signing formalities; late entrants allowed in on an undertaking, with no extra time; amend the 2024 Act so district administrations refuse permission for rallies on exam days.
• Qualifying percentile: a data-based annual review so the number of qualified NEET candidates stays reasonably aligned with seats.
• Two-stage NEET: study a common prelims with course-specific mains, so nursing or AYUSH aspirants are not ranked against MBBS aspirants.
• Age and attempt limits: explore reasonable limits for major exams including NEET-UG (which currently has neither), exempting UGC-NET.
• Duty of care: compensation for candidates hit by administrative cancellations, grievance timelines, a secure grievance channel, free counselling helplines, and a protocol for candidates with disabilities.
• Annual Equity Audit: participation and pass rates by State, gender, school board, medium and social category, published in the Annual Report.
• Coaching: papers should test conceptual understanding of the school curriculum; a regulatory framework for coaching on fees, safety and student mental health.

• Recommendations are not binding. Standing Committee reports carry persuasive weight only; the HLCE’s own 101 recommendations remain partly unimplemented two years on.
• CBT and the digital divide: candidates from rural and marginalised backgrounds may be disadvantaged; multi-session CBT also makes normalisation contentious, as JEE-Main shift-wise scoring has shown.
• Age and attempt caps may be challenged on equality grounds and could hurt late entrants, repeaters and candidates from weaker schooling backgrounds.
• Autonomy versus accountability: a parliamentary framework, State representation and an external auditor improve oversight but may slow a body that must run time-bound exams.
• Federal friction: several States contest a single national medical entrance test itself; procedural reform does not resolve that underlying dispute.
• Cost of insourcing: owning centres, printing and logistics raises fixed costs; the surplus helps but may not fund 1,000 centres and a permanent cadre over time.

After simplifying rates in its 56th meeting, the GST Council has turned to the processes that generate most taxpayer friction — registration, returns, refunds, input tax credit and litigation — while softening the criminal side of GST enforcement.

Figure 2 — The reform package at a glance (PIB infographic)

Six reform areas: registration, ease of living, refunds, returns, ITC rationalisation and litigation. Infographic courtesy PIB / Ministry of Finance, 09 October 2026; reproduced with credit for educational use.

• Detailed documentation and FAQs for processing applications; a simplified form and a guided portal interface (drop-downs, tool-tips) to cut rejections and queries.
• Amendments to registration particulars to be accepted automatically, except a change in the Principal Place of Business (PPoB); for taxpayers registered through the automatic route, even PPoB changes are auto-accepted.
• Cancellation simplified: phased automatic cancellation, fewer grounds for suo motu cancellation by officers, and system-based cancellation and revocation linked to non-filing of returns or bank details.

• GSTR-1/1A/IFF enhanced to reconcile better with GSTR-3B; mechanisms to correct liability in GSTR-3B (to match GSTR-1) and ITC in GSTR-3B (to match GSTR-2B), proposed from the April 2027 return period.
• New electronic statements for reverse-charge tax and ITC, and for ITC reversed and reclaimed.
• DRC-03 to capture invoice details behind a payment; IMS to let recipients accept, reject or keep invoices pending.
• ARQP concept note: an optional Annual Return Quarterly Payment scheme for taxpayers with turnover up to ₹5 crore making only B2C supplies — floated for deliberation, not yet approved.

• System-based processing: refund forms (RFD-01) made machine-readable for zero-rated supplies and inverted duty structure (IDS) claims.
• Removal of the cap in rule 89(4)(C) that limited zero-rated turnover of goods to 1.5 times the value of like goods sold domestically.
• The ₹1,000 minimum refund threshold under Section 54(14) to apply to the combined CGST, SGST/UTGST and IGST amount; Section 115 to specify interest on refunds of appeal pre-deposits.
• Refund of accumulated ITC on capital goods and input services in specified cases.
• Blocked-credit restrictions lifted for outdoor catering, health and life insurance, telecom towers, pipelines outside factory premises, free samples, and goods destroyed after expiry of shelf life as required by law.

Figure 3 — Key numbers in the package (PIB infographic)

Refund acknowledgement cut to 10 days, 90% risk-based provisional refunds, a ₹10,000 floor for notices and a ₹5 crore prosecution threshold. Infographic courtesy PIB / Ministry of Finance, 09 October 2026; reproduced with credit for educational use.

• Services supplied to or through a supplier’s own foreign office or branch can qualify as “export of services” — removing the bar on supplier and recipient being establishments of the same person.
• Export proceeds may be received in Indian rupees where permitted, not only in foreign exchange (to be clarified by circular).
• Where a foreign recipient makes goods physically available to an Indian service provider, the place of supply moves to the default rule of Section 13(2) — the recipient’s location — opening export benefits.
• Goods sold to overseas buyers but delivered into an SEZ or Free Trade & Warehousing Zone (FTWZ) to be treated as zero-rated.

• No show cause notice where tax involved is below ₹10,000 — applied also to pending notices and appeals.
• Penalty to be termed a “Charge” where tax is paid voluntarily with interest and penalty within the time limit.
• Penalty reduced to 5% if tax and interest are paid within 30 days (Section 73) or 60 days (Section 74A) of the order.
• Minimum ₹10,000 penalty removed in non-fraud cases; maximum general penalty cut from ₹25,000 to ₹10,000.
• Pre-deposit for appeals in penalty-only orders capped at ₹40 crore.

• Withdrawal of arrest powers under GST (the backgrounder says “certain” powers; the PIB infographic describes a complete withdrawal — the final scope will turn on the amendment text).
• Prosecution threshold raised from ₹1 crore to ₹5 crore; Section 132(1) narrowed so that clause (c) covers only fraudulent ITC availed without goods/services or without an invoice.
• E-way bills: interception only on specific intelligence with Joint Commissioner-level authorisation; action only in the State where supplier or recipient is located — no interception in transit States, unless documents are missing; no confiscation in transit under Section 130.
• A hearing before ITC is blocked under rule 86A; late-fee waiver for taxpayers with turnover up to ₹5 crore who file by the end of the due month.

Figure 4 — Ease-of-living measures (PIB infographic)

Enforcement is being recalibrated: fewer coercive powers, a higher prosecution bar and intelligence-led e-way bill checks. Infographic courtesy PIB / Ministry of Finance, 09 October 2026; reproduced with credit for educational use.

• E-commerce operators liable under Section 9(5) on notified services regardless of business model.
• E-invoicing extended to reverse-charge purchases from unregistered persons and to imports of services, for taxpayers with turnover of ₹5 crore or more.
• Transfer of title in intellectual property rights — temporary or permanent — uniformly treated as a supply of services.
• GSTAT provisions aligned with the Tribunals Reforms Act, 2026 and the related 2026 rules.
• Circulars on ISD credit distribution, ITC for banks/NBFCs under Section 17(4), demo vehicles, and the effective date of omission of rule 96(10) (23 October 2017, following the Supreme Court).

Most GST disputes arise not from rates but from ITC mismatches, delayed refunds and small-value notices. Automating these points and raising enforcement thresholds is intended to release working capital, especially for exporters and MSMEs, and to reduce the tribunal backlog.

• Revenue protection: fake invoicing and fraudulent ITC remain major leakages; dropping arrest powers and lifting the prosecution bar may weaken deterrence unless data analytics fill the gap.
• Federal concerns: confining e-way bill action to the supplier’s or recipient’s State limits transit-State enforcement, and wider ITC and refunds reduce net collections shared with States.
• Implementation lag: most measures need amendments to the CGST Act and every State GST Act, so benefits depend on legislative timelines.
• System dependence: auto-acceptance, auto-cancellation and risk-based refunds rest on GSTN’s technology and risk models; errors could hurt genuine taxpayers.
• Judicial backdrop: the Supreme Court has upheld GST arrest provisions subject to safeguards — the reform is therefore a policy choice for a trust-based regime, not a legal compulsion.