Bhatti urges Centre to reduce GST on health premiums

Hyderabad: State Deputy Chief Minister and Finance Minister Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka has demanded the Union government to reduce the GST from the existing rate of 18 per cent to 5 per cent on health insurance premiums for all age groups. The Minister also asked the Centre to constitute a Group of Ministers (GoM) Committee and seek a report on its recommendations on GST on health policies within

one month. Participating in the 54th meeting of the Goods and Services Tax (GST) Council chaired by Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in New Delhi on Monday, the Telangana Deputy CM proposed exemption for health insurance premiums in case of senior citizens. He stressed the need for reduction or exemption on health insurance premiums on the grounds that access to quality health care of their choice is to be ensured to the middle and lower middle class groups owing to high medical expenses.

Bhatti further stated that it would be the responsibility of the people’s government to make health insurance affordable to all. Since further clarity on taxability on group policies, family policies etc. is required, the Council constituted a GoM with a request to submit its recommendations within one month, so that the same can be discussed and appropriate decisions can be taken in the next GST Council meeting.

The Minister said that the same GoM would also look into the matter of granting exemption or reduction of GST on life insurance premiums also. On the issue of compensation cess, the deputy CM observed that, after discharging the loan amount, it would be appropriate to add cess component to the SGST component, as the purpose of compensation cess was to strengthen the finances of the States. The Minister also proposed to constitute another GoM to examine this issue, and recommend the future course

of action. On the subject of recovery of excess ad-hoc IGST apportionment made in earlier years, he informed the Council that the ad-hoc apportionment was done to the State of Telangana @ 4.02 per cent of the total apportionment but it is proposed to recover now @ 5.07 per cent based on another formula. Hence, the Minister suggested that a Committee of Officers (CoO) be constituted to look into the matter and submit a detailed report for arriving at a formula to make recoveries from the States. The Council referred the matter to a CoO with directions to submit its report within one month.