Chennai, Sep 4 (PTI) The Tamil Nadu government on Thursday welcomed the Centre's Goods and Services Tax rate rationalisation reforms, including exemption of individual life insurance and individual health insurance services, but expressed concerns for the protection of the state’s revenue.

State Finance Minister Thangam Thennarasu suggested either to continue the present dispensation of Cess provision through constitutional amendment or to increase the bound rate of tax only for sin and luxury goods through GST Act amendment.

Participating in the 56th Goods and Services Taxes (GST) council meeting in New Delhi on September 3, the Minister emphasised that the report of Committee of Officers on Integrated GST Settlement needed to be implemented in toto for streamlining the IGST settlement process and the GST Council agreed to implement the same before the end of December 2025.

“The Minister welcomed the automated mechanism for sanction of provisional refunds for exports and inverted duty structure and supported the simplified registration mechanism for small and low risk businesses to enable ease of doing business,” an official release here said.

Since the Council recommended to extend the period of levy of compensation cess on sin goods for 2 to 3 months beginning October 31, 2025, Thennarasu expressed hope that the GST Council may examine the suggestions of the Government of Tamil Nadu in near future.

Tamil Nadu principal secretary, Finance Department, T Udhayachandran, principal secretary, Information Technology and Digital Services Department, Brajendra Navnit, Commissioner of Commercial Taxes, S Nagarajan, and senior officers from Tamil Nadu participated in the meeting. PTI JSP ROH

GST rationalisation prompts state welcome but seeks safeguards for revenue and constitutional treatment of compensation cess. Tamil Nadu welcomed GST rate rationalisation including exemptions for individual life and health insurance but expressed revenue protection concerns, proposing either constitutional continuation of the compensation cess or limiting any bound rate increase to sin and luxury goods via GST Act amendment. The State urged implementation in full of the Committee of Officers' IGST settlement report by December 2025, supported automated provisional refunds, correction of inverted duties, and simplified registration for small and low risk businesses, and asked the GST Council to examine its suggestions on a limited extension of the compensation cess levy on sin goods.