Companies talking GST? Nearly half, after the rate cut.

What the chart shows

Nearly half of company results calls mentioned GST after GST rates were cut in September 2025: 47 in 100 on the calls about Jul-Sep 2025 results, up from about 1 call in 10 before, for the same 223 companies. Since then it has faded: 14 in 100 on Apr-Jun 2026 results.

A results call is the call a company holds with investors after each quarter's results. New GST rates (GST is the tax on what we buy) took effect on 22 September 2025, and most went down. Every call about Jul-Sep 2025 results was held after that date.

Not just the makers of the goods whose tax changed most: without daily-goods, vehicle and home-appliance makers (38 of the 223), it went from 9 in 100 before the cut (on average) to 40 in 100 right after it. Without banks, lenders and insurers, the group with the most GST calls after the cut, from 9 in 100 before the cut (on average) to 45 in 100 right after it. Across every results call we hold, not only these companies, from 9 in 100 before the cut (on average) to 45 in 100 right after it (224 of 497 calls), and 14 in 100 on Apr-Jun 2026 results.

What counts: a call counts when its transcript says "GST" at least once, from the company or from someone asking a question on the call. A GST number printed on a letterhead does not count. Before the cut, the calls that mentioned GST mostly did so in passing: tax collections, tax disputes and refunds, an order "plus GST". We read 30 randomly drawn calls about Jul-Sep 2025 results that mentioned GST: every one was about the new rates. What it is not: what anyone said about GST, or whether the cut was good or bad for any company. It is word counting, not a judgement.

How it is measured

We read the transcripts of the calls companies hold with investors after their quarterly results (earnings calls), as filed with the exchanges, for results covering Jan-Mar 2024 to Apr-Jun 2026. The calls we hold grow over time (421 for Jan-Mar 2024 results, 611 for Apr-Jun 2026), so the chart follows the same 223 companies: those with a results call in all ten quarters, 2,230 calls in all. A call is placed in the quarter its results cover (a call in November about July to September results counts in Jul-Sep).

One-page letters that only link to a transcript are not counted as calls. A call counts as mentioning GST (goods and services tax) when its transcript says "GST" at least once, whether the company said it or someone on the call asked about it. A GST registration number printed on a letterhead or cover page is not a mention (57 such numbers were set aside; 44 calls would otherwise have counted on them alone).

New GST rates took effect on 22 September 2025: most rates went down, a few went up. 69 transcript pages we hold name 22 September next to GST. A quarter's results cannot come out before the quarter ends, so every call about Jul-Sep 2025 results came after the new rates. When this chart was built (2 Oct 2026) we read randomly drawn calls by hand: 30 of 30 calls about Jul-Sep 2025 results that mentioned GST were about the new rates; 30 of 30 calls from before the cut that mentioned GST were real mentions of the tax (tax collections, disputes, refunds, prices "plus GST"), none a letterhead. Checks: without daily-goods, vehicle and home-appliance makers (38 companies) GST talk went from 9 in 100 before the cut (on average) to 40 in 100 right after it; without banks, lenders and insurers (44 companies), from 9 in 100 before the cut (on average) to 45 in 100 right after it; and across all 4,709 calls from 838 companies, from 9 in 100 before the cut (on average) to 45 in 100 right after it.

This counts whether GST came up, not what was said about it. No company is named.

Using this chart