Days after Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said that the debate around GST on insurance premium will be taken up by the GST Council, the designated body is expected to meet on September 8 and 9 to discuss the issue. Other matters that the Council will be taking stock of include progress on rate rationalisation.

The meeting will be held after the Fitment Committee and the Law Committee (sub-committees of the Council comprising officers from Centre and States) have met. Based on representations from various quarters, these committees will ready the groundwork for various proposals, which will then be presented before the Council. The body, chaired by the Finance Minister and comprising Ministers from States, will give its recommendations to be implemented by the Centre, States and Union territories.

Even though the agenda of the meeting is yet to be finalised, some issues are certainly to be taken up. One such item is GST on insurance premium, which has become a political issue. The matter was raised by the Opposition during debates on the Budget. Responding to the same, Sitharaman had said that even before GST was rolled out, States had levied tax on insurance premiums.

“Out of the 18 per cent GST on medical insurance, nearly half goes directly to the States. Of the remaining half, 41 per cent moves into the devolution pool, which also goes to States. This means more than ₹74 out of every ₹ 100 collected goes to the States,” she said, dismissing allegations that money collected through GST is “pocketed” by the Centre. Further, the Finance Minister said Parliament is not the right forum to decide on GST, but the GST Council. The issue of GST on insurance, Sitharaman added, has been discussed thrice by the GST Council, yet this debate keeps resurfacing.

Rate rationalisation

Another key agenda that could be discussed has to do with rate rationalisation. At the end of the last Council meeting in June, Sitharaman had said that the Group of Ministers (GoM) will present a status report on rate rationalisation discussed till date. Accordingly, the Council will take it forward. However, the process to finalise the rate rejig will take time, she indicated.

Bihar’s Deputy Chief Minister, Samrat Chaudhary is the convenor of GoM, which is responsible for providing recommendations on rate rationalisation. The seven-member panel has been tasked with suggesting rate rationalisation and correcting the inverted duty structure so as to simplify the rate structure, review the GST exemption list and enhance revenues collected from the Goods and Services Tax.

Other issues

The meeting is also expected to discuss the show-cause notice for GST payment of ₹32,000 crore to Infosys and around ₹10,000 crore-worth notices to 10 foreign airlines. Infosys, however, has said that the Directorate General of Goods and Services Tax Intelligence (DGGI) has withdrawn the pre-show cause notice proceedings for FY18, amounting ₹3,898 crore.

On July 31, the company received a pre-show cause notice from the Karnataka State GST authorities instructing it to pay Goods and Services Tax (GST) amounting to ₹32,403 crore for the period of July 2017 to March 2022. Following this, Infosys also received a pre-show cause notice from the DGGI. However, the company announced that the Karnataka state authorities had withdrawn the notice a day later and had instructed it to submit additional information to the DGGI.

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