Centre has buckled under pressure: TMC on GST exemption for Health and life insurance

Kolkata: The announcement of the Narendra Modi government to fully exempt individual life and Health insurance premiums from Goods and Services Tax (GST) was seen as “a victory for common people” by the Trinamool Congress on Wednesday after its supremo Mamata Banerjee last year had urged the Centre to roll it back.

The GST on Health insurance premiums that stood at 18 per cent has been cut to zero. The Trinamool Congress (TMC), however, claimed credit for the move saying the Centre has finally “buckled under pressure” after Mamata Banerjee had in 2024 written to the Union Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman highlighting the ill effects of the move and also sought a waiver of the 18 per cent GST on premiums for life and health insurance policies and products that she had termed “anti-people”.

“A victory for common people. A victory wrested from a tone-deaf regime that only listens when forced. From day one, Smt. @MamataOfficial warned the Finance Minister that taxing insurance premiums was cruel, anti-people, and would deter families from securing their future, leaving them vulnerable to financial ruin in times of crisis,” Trinamool Congress wrote on X.

The decision was taken in the 56th meeting of the Goods and Services Tax Council meeting. It is one of the most significant decisions taken by the Centre in the latest GST Council meeting. In her letter on August 2, last year, Banerjee had said life and Health insurance must be available to everyone in society and asserted that the imposition of GST on insurance premiums enhanced the burden on the common people. She also pointed out that the additional burden might act as a deterrent for many from buying new policies or continuing their existing ones, thereby leaving them vulnerable to unforeseen financial distress.

TMC further wrote: “The @narendramodi Govt. has finally buckled under pressure. This rollback proves that @BJP4India only acts when cornered. We will continue to fight every such Jono-Birodhi decision, in Parliament, on the streets, among the people.”

“I believe you will take this request with utter seriousness and take necessary steps to provide relief to encourage more and more common people to avail of these critical services so close to their basic livelihood issues,” reads Banerjee’s letter.

“… it is quite obvious that imposing a burden of GST on health and life insurance will put the common people under greater stress and anxiety, and deprive them of the benefit of social security net,” she had added. “We must, at all cost, avoid it.”