Tax on Helicopter services for religious travel reduced to 5%, says Uttarakhand FM

Dehradun: Uttarakhand Finance Minister Prem Chand Agarwal announced on Monday that the GST Council has decided to cut the tax on helicopter services for religious travels to 5%. The 54th meeting of the GST Council was held in New Delhi and was chaired by Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman today, on Monday. The Badrinath- Kedarnath pilgrims in Uttarakhand will be benefitted by this decision of the GST council.

“Helicopter services for religious purposes like Kedarnath and Badrinath have been reduced from 18% to 5%. There was no clarity on this before, but now there will be,” Agarwal told reporters. Moreover, approved flying training courses conducted by DGCA are exempt from the levy of GST.

GST rate on cancer drugs to be reduced from 12% to 5%

The Council is also set to deliberate on various issues, including lowering taxes on life and health insurance premiums and the levy of GST on payment aggregators for small digital transactions up to Rs 2,000 via debit and credit cards. Along with this, the GST rate on cancer drugs to be reduced from 12% to 5%.

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Council referred the issue of an 18% GST levy on payment aggregators

Agarwal further mentioned that the Council has referred the issue of an 18% GST levy on payment aggregators, 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 below Rs 2,000.

Centre and states collected Rs 8,262.94 crore on health insurance premiums

The Council is also likely to discuss a fitment committee report on the 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 premiums, while Rs 1,484.36 crore was collected from GST on health reinsurance premiums.  GST council recommended to constitute a group of ministers (GoM) to holistically look into the issues pertaining to GST on the life insurance and health insurance.