GST Council reduces tax on equipment, meds to fight Covid19

A group of ministers recommended the tax cuts to ease the financial burden caused by the pandemic which has also affected household finance.

The tax cuts will be effective from September 30 and may be extended close to the deadline.

There will be no tax on monoclonal antibody Tocilizumab and Amphotericin B, the medicines for treating Black Fungus, an opportunistic fungal disease infects people with Covid or recovering from the viral disease.

GST of 5 per cent will continue to be charged on Covid-19 vaccines.

The rate of 18 per cent GST being charged on certain items like RT-PCR machines, RNA extraction machines and genome sequencing machines will continue.

The rate of 12 per cent tax being charged on genome sequencing kits will continue.

No tax cut has been recommended on raw material for covid testing kits.

Taxes on anticoagulants like Heparin, antiviral drug Remdesivir have been reduced from 12 per cent to 5 per cent.

Similar reductions have been also made for medical grade oxygen, oxygen generator and concentrator, including the equipment imported for personal use, ventilator, ventilator masks, bipap machines and high flow nasal cannula device.

Other drugs recommended by health ministry for covid treatment will also be charged at 5 per cent from their applicable current rates.

The council also slashed GST rates on specified inflammatory diagnostic kits like D-Dimer, Ferritin, IL-6 and LDH from 12 per cent to 5 per cent.