Announcing the outcome of 56th GST Council meeting, the Finance Minister of India Nirmala Sitharaman said all individual life insurance policies whether term life, ULIP or endowment policies and subsequent reinsurance are exempt from Goods and Service tax (GST). All individual health insurance policies, including family floater policies and policies for senior citizens and reinsurance thereof, will also be exempt from GST.
The reduction in GST on a wide range of medicines from 12 per cent to 5 per cent will help ease the overall treatment burden and make essential therapies more affordable. GST was reduced on lifesaving medicines from 12 per cent to nil and three critical drugs for cancer, rare diseases, and other severe chronic conditions from 5 per cent to nil.
Equally impactful are the reductions in GST on all other medicines to 5 per cent and on a wide range of medical apparatus, diagnostic kits, surgical devices, and healthcare supplies like glucometers and test strips
The reduction in GST would be passed down to patients, helping reduce the cost of treatment, while also improving access and creating greater demand for quality healthcare.
Source: www.india.gov.in, 2025
