New Delhi: The 54th meeting of the Goods and Services Tax (GST) Council held on Monday under the chairmanship of Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman had decided to send a proposal for a 18 per cent GST on online transactions below Rs 2000 for payment aggregators to the fitment committee for further deliberations.

Meanwhile, the meeting also decided to reduce the GST on helicopter services for religious purposes to 5% from 18%, Uttarakhand Finance Minister Premchand Aggarwal said. 

"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.

Similarly, the matter related to online payments through gateways has also been sent to the fitment committee, he added.

The meeting is attended by key officials of the finance ministry along with the finance ministers of different states.

The decisions taken in today's meeting will be announced later in the day.

The Ministry of Finance posted on X, "Union Finance Minister @nsitharaman chairs the 54th meeting of the GST Council, at Sushma Swaraj Bhawan, in New Delhi, today. Along with the Union Finance Minister, Union Minister of State for Finance @mppchaudhary; Chief Ministers of Goa and Meghalaya; Deputy Chief Ministers of Arunachal Pradesh, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, and Telangana; besides Finance Ministers of States & UTs (with legislature) and Senior officers from Union Government & States are also attending the meeting."