The Insurance Corporation Employees Union has demanded a rollback of GST on premiums.

In 2014, the Central government implemented 18% GST on all premiums for insurance policies. GST was also imposed on interest for loans on policies and renewal of policies.

“There is also GST on the service charge for changing nominations. This is affecting policy holders across the nation. Life insurance Corporation of India is one of the biggest capital providers for the government as it attracts long-term investments. The government should, in turn, encourage people to invest in insurance. Instead, the imposing of GST is discouraging,” said N.P. Ramesh Kannan, general secretary of the union.

“We have urged the government through various campaigns and have also reached out to 22 lakh policy holders regarding this. Recently, we collected letters from 3,295 famous personalities from the Madurai division of LIC, comprising six districts, including MLAs and MPs across political parties. We will submit those letters to the State GST Council Member,” said union president G. Meenakshi Sundar.

The union also demanded that an income tax rebate of ₹1,00,000 be given on insurance policies to policy holders as an encouragement to invest in insurance.

Published On : 20-11-2019

Source : The Hindu