Kolkata, Sep 3 (PTI) The Trinamool Congress on Wednesday termed the Centre’s decision to exempt life insurance and health insurance from GST a victory for common people, which it claimed was “wrested from a tone-deaf regime that only listens when forced”.

Announcing the outcome of the 56th GST Council meeting, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Wednesday evening said that all individual life insurance policies whether term life, ULIP or endowment policies and subsequent reinsurance are exempt from GST.

“A victory for common people. A victory wrested from a tone-deaf regime that only listens when forced. From day one, Smt.@MamataOfficial warned the Finance Minister that taxing insurance premiums was cruel, anti-people, and would deter families from securing their future, leaving them vulnerable to financial ruin in times of crisis,” the Mamata Banerjee-led party said in a post on X.

The ruling party in West Bengal also claimed that the Narendra Modi government “finally buckled under pressure”.

“This rollback proves that @BJP4India only acts when cornered. We will continue to fight every such Jono-Birodhi (anti-people) decision, in Parliament, on the streets, among the people,” it added.

GST rates on common-use items ranging from hair oil to corn flakes and TVs were slashed after the all-powerful GST Council on Wednesday approved a complete overhaul of the tax regime.

Since its inception in July 2017, GST at the rate of 18 per cent was levied on premium paid towards health insurance and life insurance.

The 56th GST Council, chaired by Sitharaman and comprising ministers from all states, agreed on two tax rates of 5 and 18 per cent by moving products from the current 12 and 28 per cent slab to lower rates. PTI AMR RBT

GST exemption on life and health insurance restores tax-free treatment for individual policies, altering premium taxation consequences. The GST regime was amended to exempt life insurance and health insurance premiums for individual policies and consequent reinsurance from tax, rescinding the levy that had applied to such premiums since GST's introduction and forming part of a broader GST slab restructuring.