ICEU welcomes GST exemption for life, health insurance premium

The Insurance Corporation Employees’ Union (ICEU) of Machilipatnam Division welcomed the decision taken by the GST Council to exempt individual life and health insurance premiums from the 18% GST, saying that the move would increase access to insurance for the masses.

ICEU General Secretary G. Kishore Kumar, Divisional Joint Secretaries Ch. Kaladhar, D. Vasu and N.M.K. Prasad told the media persons on September 5 that the union had been demanding that the GST on life and health insurance premiums be done away with for a long time, during which employees met 400 Members of Parliament. 

The ICEU office-bearers said they had met Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman several times and impressed upon her the need to scrap GST on insurance premiums. The All-India Insurance Employees’ Association even met the members of NITI-Aayog. They insisted that the abolition of GST would help the government achieve the goal of providing insurance coverage to all by the year 2047.