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The Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said that the GST council has decided to form a new Group of Ministers (GoM) to look at reducing the GST rate on health insurance policies. The group will be headed by the Deputy Chief Minister of Bihar.
The decision was taken at the 54th meeting of the GST council held today in Delhi.
The GOM is expected to submit its report by October-end. The FM said, "The GST council which will meet in November will finalize based on this report which will come from the GoM,"
The issue of relaxation of GST levied on life insurance and health insurance policies came after the opposition INDIA bloc protested outside the parliament and demanded withdrawal of this GST. Earlier, the Union Minister of Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari had written to the FM urging her to waive off 18% GST levied on the premium amount of life and health insurance policies.
According to the official data, the government raised Rs.24,000 crore by levying GST on life and health insurance policies over the last three financial years of which 73% went to the states.
