The reduction in goods & services tax (GST) on individual life and health insurance premiums has been called a "landmark step" for making insurance affordable and inclusive. In a panel discussion at the Business Standard BFSI Insight Summit 2025, Anup Bagchi, managing director (MD) & chief executive officer (CEO) of ICICI Prudential Life Insurance; Mahesh Balasubramanian, MD & CEO of Kotak Life Insurance; Tarun Chugh, MD & CEO of Bajaj Life Insurance; and Ratnakar Patnaik, MD of Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC), listed what else the industry needs to reach more people.
'Ek baar aap GST dekh lo!' - Prime Minister Narendra Modi's gentle nudge to Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in December last year sparked the beginning of a mammoth exercise to overhaul the tangled goods and services tax regime. And the final outcome is a significantly simplified system with lower tax rates and easier compliance for businesses.
As lower GST rates take effect on Monday, sales of air-conditioners, TV sets surged dramatically with buyers rushing to grab cheaper deals offered by retailers at the beginning of the Navratra festival.
Maruti Suzuki India plans to localise battery production and other critical components over the next few years as part of strengthening the overall EV ecosystem in the country. The company, which plans to launch its first electric vehicle - e VITARA in the domestic market next year, is looking to instill confidence in the buyers as it looks to strengthen the overall EV ecosystem.
To ensure a glitch-free rollout of the next-generation GST with reduced rates and lesser slabs, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman chaired three separate meetings to assess GSTN's preparedness and the time it would take to implement technological changes required in the software systems.
'The primary market's rhythm mirrors investor confidence. While sentiment may appear cautious, it reflects maturity, not weakness.'
In order to reduce government litigations, the Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Saturday said the GST Council has fixed a monetary limit for filing appeals by the tax department before the various appellate authorities. It has recommended a monetary limit of Rs 20 lakh for GST Appellate Tribunal, Rs 1 crore for the High Court and Rs 2 crore for the Supreme Court for filing of appeals by the department before these legal forums, she said after the 53rd GST Council meeting held in New Delhi.
While liquidity in the banking system has turned surplus in the last few weeks, it could go back to deficit again, mainly due to corporate advance tax outflows. The net liquidity surplus of the banking system rose to touch Rs 1 trillion on Tuesday on the back of government spending, according to the data released by the Reserve Bank of India.
The instruction is that audit of large units be completed within seven working days, of medium units in five working days and of small ones in three.
'There are unscrupulous traders who create fake invoices by showing bogus e-way bills, movement of goods.' 'Since the entities registered across different states, and kept on changing their numbers, tracing them was difficult.'
The Director General of Goods and Services Tax Intelligence (DGGI) has slapped its heftiest tax notice of Rs 21,000 crore on Bengaluru-based Gameskraft Technology (GTPL) for allegedly evading GST on the betting amount. Gameskraft has dubbed the notice a "departure from the well-established law of the land". The company is accused of promoting online betting through card, casual and fantasy games like Rummy Culture, Gamezy and Rummy Time.
'We have now drastically simplified it, primarily to two rates in long-term capital gains: 20% and the applicable rates. Similarly, in short-term capital gains.' 'For listed shares, there is a slight increase, but for unlisted shares, where indexation benefits are removed, there is a reduction in rates, benefiting unlisted companies, venture capital firms, etc.' 'Similarly, in real estate, wherever returns are higher, the new structure is beneficial. In very few cases, returns are lower, and those are more of an exception.'
Though the intent has been hailed as good for the economy, teething problems remain with a five-rate structure for various goods and services
For the sake of transparency, and to reduce undesirable bond market volatility, clarity on these would be welcome, preferably before the budgets for the next fiscal year get finalised, says Neelkanth Mishra.
When it comes to electric cars, the electric dream is turning out to be a six-letter word starting with f, ending with y, and having antas in between, notes Suveen Sinha.
The data primarily pertains to activities in March, which had only a few days under the Covid-19 lockdown. For April , hence, CGST collections could be much lower, fear analysts.
'So far, the government has sanctioned more than Rs 300 billion as GST refunds,' Ansh Bhargava and Aditya Singhania point out.
GSTN said those who do not want to give their Aadhaar numbers would have to undergo physical verification.
Simplifying the processes will lead to greater efficiencies. Bad processes will not help even if implemented well, says T N C Rajagopalan
This is a moment when the leaders at the Centre and states must show true leadership for the sake of the country. And it is the top political leaders, not attorney generals or bureaucrats, who should be sitting together and settling this thorny issue of compensation, says Arvind Subramanian, former Chief Economic Adviser to the Government of India.
'Significant reductions in the compliance obligations mean businesses earlier struggling to comply will now have enough time to prepare and comply within the extended timelines.'
According to Mitra, items such as foodgrain, vegetables, leather goods, footwear, cottage cheese, puffed and flattened rice, books and entertainment tax, among several others, should be in the zero-tax bracket.
Consensus seems a problem before the current session of Parliament ends.
The forthcoming Budget, the last full one before the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, is expected to contain a number of sops and feel-good announcements, especially regarding social sector schemes.
States should have enough time. We still do not know the rules. There are a lot of operational difficulties, says Jammu and Kashmir Finance Minister Haseeb Drabu.
Lack of visibility on rates makes companies apprehensive.
The Congress has so far announced 82 candidates for the seven-phase Lok Sabha polls beginning April 19.
The Opposition said that the government was 'bull-dozing'.
GST will lead to consolidation of multiple indirect taxes
Reform ideas do not occur overnight and evolve over the years.
For the government to meet its GST roll-out deadline of April 1, 2017, the states will have to ratify the Bill before Parliament's winter session, starting November.
The recent surgical strikes in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir are expected to grab limelight during the month-long session. Some parties have alleged that the government is trying to politicise it.
Muzammil Patel and Rahul Murthi will answer all your start-up queries.
Govt can advance the dates of the convening of the monsoon session of Parliament to early July
To understand Modi, listen to what he does not say -- vide NRC, suggests Prem Panicker.
'In a country like ours, people talk about wanting to be like Singapore, but when it comes to paying taxes, they start criticising.' 'The medicine is bitter, but the long term effect is good,' Senthil Natarajan, who runs Kovai Pazamudhir Nilayam, a one of its kind fruit and vegetable chain in Tamil Nadu, tells Rediff.com's Archana Masih.
The change in the peak rate will not alter the 4-slab rate structure of 5, 12, 18 and 28 per cent agreed upon last year, but is only a provision being built into the model law to take care of contingencies in future, two officials in the know told PTI.
With recent rate cuts, November collections could be even less
Aggressive rate hikes by the US Federal Reserve could result in a flight of capital from emerging markets like India, says B Gopkumar, chief executive officer, Reliance Securities.
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