Some time ago, Union Minister Nitin Gadkari had written a letter to the country's Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman requesting to make health and life insurance premiums tax-free. Since then, there is tremendous discussion on this issue from common people to the government. Now an important meeting related to GST is going to be held to discuss the issues related to this. It is possible that a concrete consensus may be reached regarding making insurance premiums tax-free.

The GST Council takes any final decision on GST in the country. The GST Council is chaired by the Finance Minister of the country and includes the Finance Ministers of all the states or their representatives. In the last meeting of the GST Council, the issue of making insurance premium tax-free was also raised, but a final consensus could not be reached then.

Keeping this in mind, the GST Council had constituted two ministerial panels to discuss this matter in detail and to rationalize the GST rates. Now the meeting of these group of ministers is to be held on October 19. These groups will discuss rationalizing, exempting or reducing the current 18 percent GST rate on insurance premium. There will also be discussion regarding GST rates.

The path to decision will emerge from Bihar

A 13-member group of ministers has also been formed under the chairmanship of Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Samrat Chaudhary to make health insurance and life insurance premiums tax-free. After the formation of this Group of Ministers, its first meeting is to be held tomorrow. Ministers from Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, West Bengal, Karnataka, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, Goa, Gujarat, Meghalaya, Punjab, Tamil Nadu and Telangana have been included in this group of ministers.

This group of ministers will prepare its report regarding tax on insurance premium and submit it to the GST Council by the end of October. Then whether GST on insurance premium should be removed or reduced, it will be decided in the GST Council meeting.

Apart from this, another group of ministers under the chairmanship of Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Samrat Chaudhary will present its recommendations on rationalizing the GST rates. According to media reports, this group will also give its recommendations on merging the 12 and 18 percent GST rates. Currently there are 4 tax rates under GST. These rates are 5, 12, 18 and 28 percent.