Tax on helicopter services for religious travel down at 5%: Uttarakhand FM

Uttarakhand Finance Minister Prem Chand Agarwal on Monday said the GST Council has decided to cut tax on helicopter services for religious travels to 5 per cent.

The 54th meeting of the GST Council, chaired by Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, is currently underway.

"Helicopter services for religious purposes like Kedarnath, Badrinath has been reduced to 5 per cent from 18 per cent. There was no clarity on this. After this, there will be clarity," Agarwal told reporters.

The Council is slated to deliberate on a host of issues, including lowering of taxes on life and health insurance premiums, as well as levy of GST on payment aggregators for small digital transactions up to Rs 2,000, via debit and credit cards.

Agarwal further said the Council has referred the issues of levy of 18 per cent GST on payment aggregators (PAs), like BillDesk and CCAvenue, for small digital transactions up to Rs 2,000, via debit and credit cards to the fitment committee.

Currently, payment ...