GST Council meeting: Health insurance will not be cheap, decision to reduce tax postponed
It has also been proposed to exempt from tax the premiums paid for health insurance cover by senior citizens. There is also a proposal to exempt from GST the premium paid for health insurance up to Rs 5 lakh for individuals other than senior citizens.
The 55th meeting of the GST Council was held in Jaisalmer, chaired by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and attended by Chief Ministers and Finance Ministers of several states. The GST Council meeting was being considered special as the government could have relaxed the GST rate on premiums for term life insurance, health insurance and health insurance for senior citizens, but this issue is not being discussed in the meeting at present. GST Council has been suspended.
There was no consensus in the group of ministers
The GST Council on Saturday postponed the decision on reducing the tax rate on life and health insurance policy premiums. The officers provided this information. In the 55th meeting of the GST Council, it was decided that some more technical aspects need to be addressed in this regard. The GOM was tasked to discuss this further.
The decision was taken by the Council under the chairmanship of Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and in the presence of her counterparts from the states. Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Samrat Chaudhary said there will be another meeting of the GoM on insurance to decide on taxation on group, individual, senior citizen policies.
This will be discussed again in January
“Some members said that more discussion is needed,” Chaudhary told reporters. We (GoM) will meet again in January. The council has constituted a Group of Ministers (GoM) on Insurance under the chairmanship of Chaudhary, which in its meeting in November had agreed to exempt insurance premiums of term life insurance policies from GST.
Apart from this, it has also been proposed to exempt from tax the premium paid for health insurance cover by senior citizens. There is also a proposal to exempt from GST the premium paid for health insurance up to Rs 5 lakh for individuals other than senior citizens. However, Rs. 18 per cent GST will continue to be levied on premiums paid for policies with health insurance cover above Rs 5 lakh.
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