Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman chaired the 44th GST Council. The meeting was co-chaired by MoS Anurag Thakur along with the Finance Ministers of States & UTs and Senior officers from Union Government & States via video conferencing today.
At the press briefing following the meeting, Sitharaman announced that the GoM’s recommendation on bringing down rates on certain COVID-19 essentials have been accepted.
The Council decided that tax cuts are valid till September 30, and can be extended further upon nearing the deadline. While most of the medicinal supplies got a tax cut, COVID vaccines will continue to attract a five per cent GST.
GST Rate Cuts On COVID-19 Medicines:
No tax will be levied on Tocilizumab and Amphotericin B, the medicines used to treat black fungus, which is a fungal disease that affects coronavirus patients.where Council also approved the tax rate reduction for Remdesivir from 12% to 5%.
GST rates on anti-coagulants like heparin as well as Remdesivir – a drug for treating COVID-19, are reduced from 12 per cent to five per cent.
The GST Council said that the tax rate on any other drug recommended by the health ministry and Department of Pharma (DoP) for treating COVID-19 is reduced from 12 per cent to five per cent.
Allocated 170,000 vials of Amphotericin B:
The Centre also allocated at least 170,000 vials of Amphotericin B to all states and Union Territories in order to effectively treat the disease. The government also said that it has allocated 321,100 vials of Liposomal Amphotericin-B to all the states until June 9.
GST on ambulances has been brought down to 12 per cent (from 28 [per cent currently) and on electric furnaces and temperature-checking equipment to 5 per cent.
Covid-19 vaccines continue to be charged a GST of 5 per cent.
There is no change in the GST rate of some items being charged at 18 per cent, such as RT-PCR machines, RNA extraction machines and genome sequencing machines. Genome sequencing kits that are being charged at 12 per cent will continued to be charged at the same rate.
The government last month announced that it has given licence to 5 companies to speed up the production of Liposomal Amphotericin B injections. Mucormycosis cases rose amid the second wave of the Covid-19 crisis in thousands of patients across the country.
