Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, who heads the GST Council, informed that the Group of Ministers (GoM) will be helmed by Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Samrat Choudhary, adding that new members will soon join the group to look into GST on health insurance and life insurance.
GST Council Meeting: Relief may be on the way for the middle class as the GST Council is mulling to ease tax rates on life and health insurance and also cut GST rates on cancer drugs. In a media briefing on the outcome of the 54th GST Council meeting, Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, Monday said a Group of Ministers (GoM) will be set up to decide on these possible tax cuts.
Sitharaman, who heads the GST Council, informed that the GoM will be helmed by Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Samrat Choudhary, who is currently heading the panel on GST rate rationalisation, adding that new members will soon join the group to look into GST on health insurance.
Sitharaman said the GoM will submit its report by the end of October this year.
Notably, the issue of taxation of insurance premiums had figured in Parliament discussions with Opposition members demanding that health and life insurance premiums be exempted from the GST. Even Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari wrote to Sitharaman on the issue.
During the Budget Session, Sitharaman in her reply to a discussion on the Finance Bill had said that 75 per cent of the GST collected goes to states and the Opposition members should ask their state finance ministers to bring the proposal at the GST Council.
GST eased on cancer drugs
The GST Council has also decided cut tax rates on cancer drugs to 5 per cent from 12 per cent and namkeens from 18 per cent to 12 per cent.
Sitharaman further said that a GoM will also be constituted to deal with the issue concerning compensation cess which will cease after March 2026.
The Council also deliberated on the GoM’s status report on rate rationalisation and online gaming.
The minister further said that a committee of secretaries headed by Additional Secretary (Revenue) will be formed on the IGST which is currently facing a negative balance. It will look into ways to retrieve the money from states.
(With PTI inputs)