GST Council cuts tax on helicopter services for religious travel to 5%: Uttarakhand FM

Uttarakhand Finance Minister Prem Chand Agarwal on Monday said the GST Council has decided to cut tax on helicopter services for religious travels to 5 per cent.

The 54th meeting of the GST Council, chaired by Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman , is currently underway.

"Helicopter services for religious purposes like Kedarnath, Badrinath has been reduced to 5 per cent from 18 per cent. There was no clarity on this. After this, there will be clarity," Agarwal told reporters.

The Council is slated to deliberate on a host of issues, including lowering of taxes on life and health insurance premiums, as well as levy of GST on payment aggregators for small digital transactions up to Rs 2,000, via debit and credit cards.

Agarwal further said the Council has referred the issues of levy of 18 per cent GST on payment aggregators (PAs), like BillDesk and CCAvenue, for small digital transactions up to Rs 2,000, via debit and credit cards to the fitment committee.

Currently, payment aggregators are exempt from paying GST on transactions amounting to less than Rs 2,000.

The council is also likely to discuss a fitment committee report on taxation of life and health insurance premiums.

In 2023-24, the Centre and states collected Rs 8,262.94 crore through GST on health insurance premium, while Rs 1,484.36 crore was collected on account of GST on health reinsurance premium.

The issue of taxation of insurance premium figured in Parliament discussions with Opposition members demanding that health and life insurance premiums be exempt from GST. Even Union Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari wrote to Sitharaman on the issue.

Also, the GoM on GST rate rationalisation is likely to present its report to the Council.