GST Council sets up GoM on reduction in GST on health insurance; cuts rate on cancer drugs
New Delhi, Sep 9: GST Council headed by Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Monday decided to set up a Group of Ministers (GoM) on reducing tax rate on life and health insurance and cut GST on cancer drugs and namkeens.
Briefing reporters on the outcome of the 54th GST Council meeting, Sitharaman said it has decided to have a Group of Ministers (GoM) to look into the GST rate on life and health insurance.
The GoM will be headed by Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Samrat Choudhary, who is currently heading the panel on GST rate rationalisation.
Sitharaman said that new members would be joining the GoM to look into GST on health insurance.
The GoM will be submitting its report by October end, she said.
The issue of taxation of insurance premiums had figured in Parliament discussions with Opposition members demanding that health and life insurance premiums be exempt from the GST. Even Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari wrote to Sitharaman on the issue.
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.
The GST Council in its meeting on Monday also decided to 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.
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Congress using hijab issue to pacify minority anger, alleges Karnataka LoP R Ashoka
Bengaluru: Leader of Opposition in the Assembly R. Ashoka has accused the Congress government of using the hijab issue to placate what he described as discontent among minority voters after the Davanagere by-election.
In a post on X on Wednesday, Ashoka alleged that the state government, instead of addressing issues such as price rise, corruption, farmers’ distress and law and order, was attempting to retain its minority vote base by reviving the hijab issue.
Referring to the 2022 dress code introduced by the BJP government, which prohibited hijab in schools and colleges, Ashoka said the Karnataka High Court had upheld the policy and emphasised the importance of discipline in educational institutions.
He questioned the Congress government’s move to revisit the issue and asked whether setting aside the court-backed policy to benefit one community could be described as secularism.
Ashoka further alleged that while the government was willing to permit hijab, it continued to prohibit saffron shawls.
He accused the government of dividing students on religious lines rather than treating schools and colleges as spaces of equality.
Drawing a comparison with Mamata Banerjee’s government in West Bengal, Ashoka claimed that excessive appeasement politics had harmed the state and warned that the Congress in Karnataka could face a similar political response.
He said voters in Karnataka would teach the Congress a lesson for what he termed “vote-bank politics” and for compromising constitutional and judicial principles.
