Withdrawal of GST on insurance premium demanded

Vijayawada: All India Insurance Employees Association leaders have demanded that the GST Council should consider the withdrawal of 18 per cent GST on the insurance premiums as it is very high, and is causing a huge financial burden on the incomes of the policyholders.

All India Insurance Employees Association 56th General Conference of Machilipatnam Division was held at MB Bhavan in Vijayawada on Sunday and the leaders discussed various issues related to the insurance sector, economy and the policies of the Union government.

CITU State General Secretary Ch Narasingha Rao, Insurance Employees Association Zonal President P Satish, Zonal General Secretary TVNS Ravindranath, LIC Senior Divisional Manager G Sudhakara Babu, Divisional President J Sudhakar, General Secretary G Kishore Kumar and others participated in the conference.

The Union leaders said the insurance savings in our economy is very significant and this premium will be utilised as a capital and this plays a pivotal role in our nation’s economic growth. They said the public sector LIC remained as a market leader once again with a remarkable performance in the last financial year 2023-24. LIC is today competing with 24 private insurance companies and stood as a strong financial entity with an asset base of Rs 52,85,503 crore.

They alleged the BJP led NDA government has resorted to undermine the role of Public Sector in our nation’s progress and the key sectors like railways, postal, ports now face a serious threat of privatisation.

In spite of stiff resistance from the people and unions, the government is going ahead with the privatisation of the Vizag Steel plant, they added.

The conference discussed various issues like further consolidation of LIC, recruitment of staff, abolition of New Pension Scheme and implementation of OPS to all in the conference.