GST Council Meeting: Here Are Key Highlights

The 54th meeting of the GST Council was headed by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and included state ministers. It decided on whether to reduce the tax burden on health insurance from the current 18% or exempt certain categories of individuals, like senior citizens.

The chief ministers of Goa and Meghalaya and deputy chief ministers of Arunachal Pradesh, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, and Telangana were also present.

Key Highlights

• Sitharaman announced the formation of two new groups of ministers that will address the issues related to tax rates and compensation cess. The first GoM will concentrate on medical and health insurance and the second will focus on rate rationalisation. Both groups are expected to present their findings by the end of October.

• GST rates on specified cancer drugs have been reduced from 12% to 5%, and that on namkeen and similar savoury items has been decreased from 18% to 12%.

• The council has slashed tax on research grants for universities and other research institutions.

• Sitharaman addressed various questions from states concerning insurance policies. It involved whether to provide tax exemptions or to entirely abolish the tax. Since there were various groups involved, she highlighted the complexities of implementation.

• Revenue Secretary Sanjay Malhotra clarified that there were no discussions regarding the retrospective tax imposition on online gaming companies or on card payments up to Rs 2,000.

• The Council announced an exemption for foreign airlines from GST on the import of services by their establishments in India.

• An exemption has been introduced for affiliation charges collected by education boards from government schools.

• The renting of commercial property by unregistered persons to registered persons will now fall under the Reverse Charge Mechanism.

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