A company recovering top-up insurance premium from employees and paying that to the insurance company should not face any goods and services tax implications, an authority for advance ruling has said.

The Maharashtra AAR ruling in an application filed by Tata Power said the recovery of insurance premium is not an activity done “in the course of business or for the furtherance of business” and hence, should be outside the gamut of GST.

AAR ruled that the company was merely paying the insurance premium amount to the insurance company and recovering the premium amount from its employees.

Against this, the company is taking input tax credit of the GST paid to the insurance company. “Non-providing of top-up insurance/parental insurance coverage will not affect applicant's business by any way,” AAR said.

“This is a sagacious ruling likely to catch the eye of the industry, as authorities have adopted a plausible ground that recovery of insurance is not an activity done in course or furtherance of business,” said Harpreet Singh, partner, indirect taxes, at KPMG India.
Many companies allow employees to buy top-up life or medical insurance over the cover they provide to them.