ITANAGAR, 12 Jun: Deputy Chief Minister Chowna Mein on Saturday stated that the Arunachal government agrees in principle with the recommendations of the group of ministers (GoM) regarding exemption/reduction of the GST rates on Covid-19-related items.
He was attending the 44th GST Council meeting, held under the chairmanship of union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, through videoconference on Saturday. Union MoS for Finance Anurag Thakur, along with the finance ministers of states and union territories and senior officers of the finance ministry also attended the meeting.
The GoM was constituted with Meghalaya Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma as its convener by the GST Council earlier to examine the need for further relief on Covid-19-related items.
During the meeting, Mein said that the GoM had taken careful note that the domestic producers and supply chains do not suffer and therefore did not recommend zero rating or lowered the rate to 0.1 percent.
He expressed appreciation for the GoM’s decision to exempt GST on vital drugs like Amphotericin B and Tocilizumab, to reduce GST from 12 percent to 5 percent for other medicines like Remdesivir, Heparin and similar anti-coagulant medicines, reduction of GST rates on medical grade oxygen, oxygen concentrators and pulse oximeters, including personal imports thereof from 12 percent to 5 percent, and reduction of GST on ventilators, ventilator masks/cannula/helmet, BiPAP machine and high flow nasal cannula, which are also critical for Covid-19 management, to 5 percent till 31 August, 2021.
The DCM also informed that Arunachal welcomes the recommendations of the GoM for reduction of GST rate on personal imports of concentrators, hand sanitizers, temperature check equipment, texting kits for D-dimer, IL-6, Ferritin, LDH, gas/electric/other furnaces (incinerators) for use in crematoriums till 31 August as a short-term measure.
The council decided to reduce the GST rates on the specified items being used in Covid-19 relief and management till 30 September. The details of recommendations are given below:
