In the 56th meeting of the GST council, the government announced exemption of GST on all individual life insurance policies whether term life, ULIP or endowment policies and reinsurance.
All individual health insurance policies (including family floater policies and policies for senior citizens) and reinsurance are also exempted from GST. These exemptions are announced to make insurance affordable for the common man and increase the insurance coverage in the country.
The council also reduced GST from 12% to NIL on 33 lifesaving drugs and medicines and from 5% to NIL on 3 lifesaving drugs & medicines used for treatment of cancer, rare diseases and other severe chronic diseases.
The current GST of 18% in brought down to 5% on on various medical apparatus and devices used for medical, surgical, dental or veterinary usage or for physical or chemical analysis.
The GST is reduced from 12% to 5% on various medical equipment and supplies devices such as wadding gauze, bandages, diagnostic kits and reagents, blood glucose monitoring system (Glucometer) medical devices, etc.