Industry body voices concern over 5% GST on hospital room tariffs

Ficci bats for zero GST on health care in letter to FM; CAIT against tax tweaks on food items

Industry and trade chambers have voiced concern at some of last week’s decisions of the Goods and Services Tax (GST) Council, such as taxing hospital room tariffs and bringing unbranded packaged consumer items within the tax net. The Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (Ficci) has written to Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, seeking zero rate GST for health care services to enable service providers to claim input tax credit (ITC).

The industry body is of the view that enabling this will not only keep the ITC chain intact but will make compliance easier. 

It will also ensure that the