In the Rajya Sabha, Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman disclosed on Thursday that Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari’s letter, which asked for the elimination of the 18% GST on life and health insurance, was made public without his consent. Sitharaman criticized the opposition for attempting to forward their agenda by means of this unapproved revelation.
Attacking the opposition bloc who is also demanding the removal of GST citing Gadkari’s letter, Sitharaman said, “Some minister wrote a letter, and someone from the delegation, without the minister’s permission, made it public. The opposition saw this as an opportunity.”
This is not the first time that the FM has addressed the issue. Before, in Lok Sabha, Sitharaman said, “I want to raise two important points – tax has been there on medical insurance even before the introduction of GST. There was already a pre-GST tax on medical insurance, before the GST was introduced. This is not a new issue, it was already there in all the states. Those protesting here… did they discuss regarding the removal of this tax in their states?”
Gadkari had requested the finance minister to remove the Goods and Services Tax from premiums paid for life and medical insurance, a move that would reduce the tax burden on insurers and possibly increase demand for critical insurance products in the world’s most populous country.
Gadkari wrote to Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on behalf of the Nagpur LIC union, claiming that the indirect tax levied on life insurance premiums is equivalent to taxing life’s uncertainties.
Moreover, Gadkari in the letter had raised the union’s concern on differential treatment to savings by way of Life Insurance, re-introduction of IT deduction for health insurance premium and consolidation of public and sector general insurance companies.
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Source: ET
