GST Council defers decision to lower tax on insurance, food delivery

The Goods and Services Tax (GST) Council today deferred lowering the GST rate on health and life insurance premiums, said the finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman in a briefing on the outcome of 55th council meeting. The finance minister said that the council has also deferred reduction in GST rate for food delivery through aggregators such as Swiggy and Zomato.

The council also agreed to issue a clarification on GST on popcorn. While there is no change in the rate of the popcorn, the Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC) will issue a circular clarifying the current GST structure for popcorn. Ready to eat pop corn, which is not pre packaged and branded comes under 5% slab, while 12% GST is applicable to pre-packaged and branded popcorn. Caramelised pop corn comes under 18% GST rate, as the nature of the product changes to that of a confectionary.

The report of the group of ministers on rate rationalisation, which suggested rate tweaks on 148 items was not submitted in today’s meeting. Bihar deputy Chief Minister Samrat Chaudhary, who heads the GoM said that more deliberations are needed on the rate issue. He said that the GOM is likely to meet again in January, after which final proposals on rates will be sent to the council.

The Finance minister pointed out that GST relief on health, life insurance will be taken up by the GoM only after getting IRDAI's inputs. “No timeline has been given to GoM on cess to finalise report,” she added.

Sitharaman stated that payment aggregators under ₹2,000 are eligible for exemption. “Payment aggregators who do less than ₹2,000 payment are eligible for exemption, but let us understand and I clarify that this exemption does not cover payment gateways. And other fintech services which do not involve settlement of funds. Payment aggregators who do less that ₹2,000 will have that exemption,” said Sitharaman.