New Delhi: At this time of crisis when COVID patients face hardship for treatment at hospitals, the Central government has made a provision and allowed the hospitals and nursing homes to accept cash payments of Rs 2 lakh and more for the treatment of these patients. A notification in this regard has been issued by the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT).
The move from the central government has been taken to remove the hardship being faced by relatives and caregivers of COVID-19 patients who visit hospitals for treatment.
As per the notification, the CBDT said hospitals, dispensaries, nursing homes, COVID care centres or similar other medical facilities providing COVID-19 treatment to patients are being “specified for the purpose of section 269ST of the Income Tax Act”.
This section restricts any person from receiving an amount of Rs 2 lakh or more in cash, from a person in a day, in respect of a single transaction or in respect of transactions relating to one event or occasion from a person.
The notification said the latest provision is being made for a period between April 1-May 31 “on obtaining the PAN or Aadhaar of the patient and the payee and the relationship between the patient and the payee” by such hospitals or COVID care centres. It was introduced by the Union government in 2017 as a measure to curb black money.
The move from the Centre has come at a time when the country on Saturday recorded 4,187 fatalities due to COVID-19 in a single day, taking the country’s death toll to 2,38,270, while 4,01,078 new infections were reported in a day, pushing the tally to 2,18,92,676.
As per the updates from the Union Health Ministry, the active cases have increased to 37,23,446, comprising 17.01 per cent of the total infections, while the national COVID-19 recovery rate has dropped to 81.90 per cent.
(With inputs from PTI)