Tax On Helicopter Services For Religious Purposes Reduced To 5%: Uttarakhand FM

In an update from the 54th GST Council Meeting, Uttarakhand Finance Minister Premchand Aggarwal said the helicopter services for pilgrims and tourists on a sharing basis will be charged at 5%.

He further added chartered helicopter services at 18%.

“Helicopter services for religious purposes like Kedarnath, and Badrinath have been reduced to 5% from 18%. There was no clarity on this. After this, there will be clarity,” Agarwal told reporters.

Under current rules, the GST rate for chartered air services in India depends on the purpose of the flight: For passenger transportation, if the chartered flight is for domestic travel, the GST rate is 5% with Input Tax Credit (ITC) only on input services (no ITC on goods).

For international charter flights, the services are zero-rated, meaning no GST is applicable as it is treated as an export of services. Meanwhile, for non-passenger services (e.g., for cargo or other purposes) the GST rate is generally 18%, similar to other non-passenger air services.

The GST Council was chaired by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and comprised state ministers.

What are the other matters discussed in the 54th GST Council meeting?

The Goods and Services Tax (GST) Council has not yet reached a decision on applying an 18% GST on transactions below ₹2,000 processed by payment aggregators, CNBC-TV18 reported.

The matter, which will impact customers’ ability to make small online payments, is to be referred to the GST fitment committee for further review, Uttarakhand Finance Minister Premchand Aggarwal said.

The discussion also involved GST-related matters on life and health insurance policies as the insurance sector has been a topic of concern with policymakers trying to balance between boosting the sector’s growth and taxing it fairly. No concrete proposals have been finalised so far.

The fitment committee will also be reviewing the topic of GST on the research and development activities in educational institutions.

Apart from all these, notices were issued by the Directorate General of GST Intelligence (DGGI) to seven universities, including IIT Delhi and Punjab University, over research grants worth Rs 220 crore.