On Saturday, a GST Council meeting postponed a decision on reducing taxes on health and life insurance, while the much talked- about GoM recommendation of rate rejig in 148 items was not tabled before the Council.
Some members of the Council, chaired by Union Finance Minster Nirmala Sitharaman and comprising her state counterparts, felt that more deliberations were required before a final decision could be arrived at with regard to insurance taxation.
Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Samrat Chaudhary, who heads the panel on GoM on insurance, said one more meeting is required to take a call on taxation of group, individual, senior citizen’s policies. “Some (Council) members said more discussions required. We (GoM) will meet in January again,” Chaudhary told reporters here.Besides, the report of the GoM on rate rationalisation, which had recommended tweaks in 148 items, was not tabled before the Council.
“We will submit the GoM report on rate rationalisation in next meeting of Council,” said Chaudhary who is the convenor of the panel. The ongoing Council meeting will also deliberate on bringing Aviation Turbine Fuel (ATF) in Goods and Services Tax fold. Several proposals of Fitment Committee, comprising officials from the Centre and states’ GST departments would come up for review before the Council.One of the proposals include cutting taxes on food delivery platforms like Swiggy and Zomato, to 5 per cent (without input tax credit), from the current 18 per cent (with ITC).
It is likely to have proposed a rate hike on sale of used EVs as well as small petrol and diesel vehicles to 18 % from the current 12 %. This hike would bring used and old smaller cars and EVs at par with old larger vehicles, according to sources.Also, the Group of Ministers (GoM) on GST compensation cess is likely to get a six-month extension till June 2025, to submit their report. The compensation cess regime comes to an end in March 2026, and the GST Council has set up a panel of ministers, under Union Minister of State for Finance Pankaj Chaudhary, to decide the future course of the cess.
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