The 55th meeting of the GST Council is going to be held in Rajasthan next month. All eyes are fixed on this. From the point of view of the common man, there can be relief in health and life insurance premiums (installments).
A decision is to be taken on reducing the rate of 18 percent GST on the premium of both the insurances. Along with this, a big decision is also likely to be taken regarding rationalizing the current rates of GST.
Experts related to the matter say that the meeting will mainly focus on topics like health and life insurance. The group of ministers has submitted its report on reducing the GST rate on both insurances. Sources say that the group has decided to remove GST rates on insurance up to Rs 5 lakh, but experts say that a decision can be taken to reduce GST rates on insurance of more than Rs 5 lakh from the current level. At present, 18 percent GST is levied, but the GST Council can also decide to reduce it to 12 percent or less.
Consensus among states
Many states are in favour of the fact that common citizens buy health and life insurance to ensure their future security, for which the government should not levy taxes on people. But some states argue that if GST is completely removed, the states will lose revenue. It is estimated that if GST is removed on insurance up to Rs 5 lakh, revenue of about Rs 2100 crore will be affected. In such a situation, a middle path can be found and GST rates can be reduced on insurance above Rs 5 lakh.
The government gets huge revenue
A huge amount of money goes to the treasury of the central and state governments in the form of GST through health and life insurance. According to the data, the total health insurance premium in the financial year 2022-23 was around Rs 90,032 crore, in which the contribution of individual health insurance premium was Rs 35,300 crore. Now if the current 18 percent GST rate is added to this, then tax of Rs 6,354 crore was collected from individual premiums. Therefore, all the situations will be studied before taking a final decision.
There will also be discussion on making GST rates rational
The Group of Ministers (GoM) is also working on rationalizing the existing rates of GST. Currently, there are four common tax rates or slabs of GST across the country, which include 5, 12, 18 and 28 percent. Last month, a meeting of the newly formed Group of Ministers chaired by Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Samrat Chaudhary was held, in which he said that additional discussions would be held before taking a final decision on rationalizing the GST rate. The group has received many suggestions, which are being considered. The final decision will be taken based on the suggestions of all the parties.
