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GST Council: After the 54th meeting of the GST Council, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced a cut in GST rates on cancer medicines and snacks. Addressing a press conference, Finance Minister Sitharaman said that several decisions have been taken in the council meeting. The Finance Minister said that it has also been decided to exempt government-affiliated educational institutions from GST. He said that apart from this, GST has also been reduced on cancer medicines. The Finance Minister said that the GST rate on snacks is also likely to be reduced. The Finance Minister also informed that commercial property rents will be brought under the reverse charge mechanism.
GST rate on cancer drugs reduced from 12% to 5%
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said that the reduction of GST rate on cancer medicines from 12% to 5% is aimed at further reducing the overall cost of cancer treatment. The GST Council has decided to reduce tax on select snacks from 18% to 12%. According to Sitharaman, online gaming revenue grew 412% in six months to Rs. 6,909 crore. The Finance Minister said that the GoM was to submit a status report on rationalisation of rates. Two status reports were presented, one on real estate and the other on rationalisation of rates. The Finance Minister said that the status of online gaming and casinos was also presented during the Council meeting. She said that casino revenue has increased by 30%. The Finance Minister said that the Group of Ministers on Health Insurance will submit its report by the end of October.
Decision to remove GST on health insurance postponed till October
There was speculation that no decision has been taken to remove GST on health insurance during the GST Council meeting. However, this decision has been postponed for now. The GST Council has constituted a group of ministers to assess the rates on health insurance. The Finance Minister said that this group of ministers will submit its report by the end of October.
Apart from this, the GST Council has decided to reduce the tax on the operation of helicopter services for religious pilgrimages to five percent. Uttarakhand Finance Minister Premchand Agarwal gave this information on Monday. Agarwal told reporters, “The tax on helicopter services carrying devotees on religious pilgrimages like Kedarnath, Badrinath has been reduced from 18 percent to five percent.” Earlier there was no clarification about this. Now it will become clear.
Aggarwal said the council has raised the issue of levying 18 per cent GST on payment aggregators (PAs) such as BillDesk and CCAvenue for transactions through rupee debit and credit cards. A fee of Rs 2,000 for small digital transactions has been referred to the tax recommendation committee. Currently, payment aggregators are charged a fee of Rs. Transactions less than Rs 2,000 are exempted from payment of GST. The council may also discuss the report of the fitment committee on taxation on life and health insurance premiums.