New Delhi, September 9: Helicopter travel to pilgrimages may soon become cheaper as the GST Council on Monday has decided to slash GST on such a mode of travel. Uttarakhand Finance Minister Prem Chand Agarwal said that the GST Council has accepted their demand to reduce taxes on helicopter travel to pilgrimage sites.

"We demanded that GST rate on travel to pilgrimage places by helicopter services should be brought down from 18 percent to 5 percent. Council has accepted our demand," the Uttarakhand minister said. The minister that the effective date for reduced GST on helicopter services will come through notification. On imposing GST on research grants received by educational institutions, he said that this issue has been sent to the fitment committee. GST Council Proposes Waiving of Interest, Penalty on Demand Notices Issued to Taxpayers Under Section 73, if Tax Paid by March 31, 2025.

Similarly, the matter related to online payments through gateways has also been sent to the fitment committee, he added. The 54th meeting of the Goods and Services Tax (GST) Council meeting is being held today in New Delhi under the chairmanship of Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman.

The decisions taken in today's meeting will be announced later in the day. GST Council Meet 2024: Government Rolls Out Pan-India Aadhaar-Based Biometric Authentication To Prevent GST Fraud.

The GST Council, consisting of the Union Finance Minister and representatives from all States and Union Territories, was established to make decisions on various aspects of GST, including tax rates, exemptions, and administrative procedures. The last meeting of the GST Council was held on 22 June 2024 this year. The GST regime removed the inefficiencies and complexities of the previous archaic taxation system. Over the years, GST has, among others, simplified compliance and reduced the cascading impact of tax.

Before July 1, 2017, the indirect tax regime was highly fragmented. The Centre and States were separately taxing goods and services. The GST Council, a federal body comprising the Union Finance Minister as its Chairman and Finance Ministers of all States as members, has played its part in the forum.