The GST Council, which includes the Minister of Finance Nirmala Sitharaman, will discuss major points such as insurance sector taxation, rationalization of GST rates, and the position of GST on online gaming.
Taxation of Insurance Premiums
Constitutional body fitment committee of Centre & states tax officials to submit a report on GST imposed on life, health & reinsurance premium. It may be thought that the current 18% GST on health insurance premiums can be subsided or that some kind of rebate can be offered to senior citizens. This matter was initiated with the help of the opposition and Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari who insisted on the need to exclude the premiums for the health and life insurance in the GST.
Online Gaming GST Status
In the same regard, the Council will examine the revenue earning for GST from online gaming entities from October 1, 2023, when a GST rate of twenty-eight percent was levied on entry-level bets. Earlier, online gaming companies debated over such differentiation of tax rates for games of skill as opposed to games of chance. There is news that today’s offshore platforms must register for GST and pay taxes or may be restricted.
Fake Registrations Drive
The Council will be informed of the outcome of a drive to identify fraud GST registrations. The campaign, which will take place between August 16 and October 15, 2024, is aimed at filtering out fraudsters with dubious GSTINs. In a similar exercise during May and July 2023 alone, 21,791 nonexistent entities were traced and about Rs24,010 crore of tax evasion was suspected.
The subject of Pending Notifications and Amnesty Scheme was also going to be discussed in the meeting. The Council will be expected to endorse a number of notifications that were made in the previous meetings such as the amnesty scheme and the other measures that are friendly to the taxpayers as a way of eliminating litigations. A proposal of waiver on interest and penalties for early payment of taxes from the first three years of GST has also been laid out.
