GST exemption sought on Covid drugs, equipment

 









A plea has been filed by NGO Public Policy Advocates before the Supreme Court seeking an exemption for Covid-19 drugs remdesivir, tocilizumab, favipiravir and other drugs with a similar generic composition and related medical equipment from Goods and Service Tax (GST).

It asked for a direction to the Central government to invoke its powers under Section 11 of the Central GST Act 2017 to lift imposition of GST on medical grade oxygen, oxygen concentrators, ventilators, Bipap machines, control measures and supportive care for Covid-19 patients in view of demand for these drugs and medical equipment having increased exponentially.

Accusing the GST Council of showing total apathy by not recommending an exemption on such drugs and equipment to the Central government, the NGO has sought exemption of 12% GST imposed on such drugs and equipment, which would make treatment much more affordable to the public.

The NGO also requested for a direction be issued to the GST Council to convene a meeting as contemplated in Section 11 and examine the issue of GST exemption on “Covid-19 related drugs including but not limited to remdesivir, tocilizumab, favipiravir and other drugs with similar generic constitution, medical equipment including but not limited to ventilators & Bipap machines, and other medical treatment for infection prevention, control measures and supportive care for Covid-19 patients including but not limited to medical grade oxygen, oxygen concentrators etc.

“Section 11 of the Central Goods and Services Tax Act empowers the Central government to exempt goods or services, or both, from the tax leviable on the basis of the recommendations of the Goods and Services Tax Council, if it is satisfied that it is necessary in the public interest,” the plea states.

With the spike in demand, unfortunately, there have been many cases of black marketing and hoarding of such medicines, it points out. “The right to health in times of pandemic, assumes an ever more crucial significance since affordable healthcare and availability of drugs which are critical to fight moderate and severe cases of illness have to be given paramount importance. This would have the effect of preventing black marketing, hoarding of such drugs and other medical equipment, as well as would ensure that the same is available to the citizens at affordable cost,” the plea states.

It is critical to underscore that drugs such as remdesivir and tocilizumab along with medical grade oxygen, were part of the Covid Clinical Management Protocol issued by the ministry of health and family welfare on June 27 last year, Public Policy Advocates stated.
Download our App to get knowledge updates: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.app.gstmitraa

Join Our Telegram Channel for more updates: https://t.me/praveengst

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Centre appeals against ruling on levy of GST on maintenance charges to resident welfare associations

Image
  The Centre has preferred a writ appeal before the Madras High Court against a single judge's order that flat or villa owners paying more than ₹7,500 a month towards maintenance charges to their residents’ welfare associations must pay Goods and Services Tax (GST) at the rate of 18% only for the amount exceeding ₹7,500 and not for the entire monthly contribution. Justices T.S. Sivagnanam and Sathi Kumar Sukumara Kurup on Wednesday allowed an application filed by the Centre to dispense with production of a certified copy of the judgment passed by Justice Anita Sumanth recently and directed the Registry to list the appeal for admission in the usual course. Justice Sumanth had in July this year quashed an order passed by the Authority for Advance Ruling (AAR) on June 21, 2019 as well as a consequent circular issued by the Department of Revenue under the Union Finance Ministry on July 22, 2019 since both of them had insisted upon collecting GST for entire monthly contribution. The jud...
Read more

Seven key things to know before filing income tax return (ITR) for FY21

Image
  The last date to file income tax return for the financial year 2020-21 has been extended to September 30, 2021. Although there is more than two months left for the deadline to end, it is always recommended to complete the task as soon as possible and not to wait for the last minute. Worth mentioning here is that the income tax department last month launched a new e-filing portal (www.incometax.gov.in) to speed up the processing of tax returns. The I-T department will soon launch a mobile application, having all the features of the new portal. This year taxpayers have to take care of the following changes in the ITR filing process. 1) A new utility named JSON has been launched for filing tax return forms for FY21. At present, only three forms, ITR 1, 2 and 4 have been released. These new forms will import pre-fill data such as personal details, salary income, dividend income, interest income, capital gains and all the information available in Form 26AS. 2) Taxpayers will have the ...
Read more

Income Tax Dept detects ₹350 cr unaccounted cash receipts after raid in Rajkot

Image
  The Income Tax Department carried out a search and seizure operation on a real estate group based in Gujarat's Rajkot and found unaccounted cash receipts in various projects of approximately ₹350 crore, the Finance Ministry said on Friday. The group is among Gujarat’s prominent real estate builders and developers and is actively engaged in real estate, construction and land trading businesses in and around Rajkot. More than 40 premises were covered in the search operation. During the course of operation, many incriminating documents and digital evidences were seized indicating involvement of the group in unaccounted transactions. The IT sleuths found substantial evidence of transactions outside the regular books of accounts, unaccounted cash expenses, cash advances received and interest paid in cash. Evidence of on-money payments in real estate projects-flats, shops and land deals has also been found. Total unaccounted cash receipts in various projects of approximately ₹350 crore...
Read more