RAS question
At the 22nd CII Annual Health Summit on 11 November 2025, Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal said GST on health and life insurance has been reduced from 18% to which rate?
Correct answer: (C) 0 per cent.
At the 22nd CII Annual Health Summit on 11 November 2025, Piyush Goyal said GST on health and life insurance had been reduced from 18 per cent to 0 per cent.
Explanation
The PIB release reports that Union Minister of Commerce and Industry Piyush Goyal, speaking at the 22nd CII Annual Health Summit in New Delhi, linked the GST cut on health and life insurance to the Government's focus on healthcare affordability. The specific reduction he cited was from 18 per cent to 0 per cent, not a partial cut. He placed this measure alongside lower duties on medical devices, cancer-care drugs and essential medicines, all framed as steps to make treatment more accessible and affordable for citizens. Therefore, the exam point is the exact revised GST rate: zero-rated health and life insurance.
Why the other options are wrong
- (A) 12 per cent is wrong because the PIB release says the reduction was all the way from 18 per cent to 0 per cent, not to an intermediate slab.
- (B) 5 per cent is wrong because Piyush Goyal did not describe health and life insurance as moved to a lower taxable slab; he said the rate was reduced to 0 per cent.
- (D) 3 per cent is wrong because the PIB release does not give 3 per cent as the revised GST rate for health and life insurance.
Concept
This tests current GST-rate changes in social-sector services, a recurring RAS economy theme because tax policy is often linked to welfare, affordability and sectoral development. The key skill is to remember the exact revised rate from an official government release.