West Bengal finance minister Amit Mitra to GST council: Accept 0-rated tax for Covid essentials

NEW DELHI: West Bengal finance minister Amit Mitra on Tuesday urged that the GST Council agree to accept zero rated tax for all Covid related materials, equipment, drugs and vaccines.
In a letter to Union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman, Mitra said this will allow the manufacturers and their supply chain entrepreneurs to avail input tax credit and there would be no adverse impact on prices for consumers.
“You would agree that this is an extremely difficult time concerning the lives of millions of people and we need to go the extra mile for effectively managing the crisis caused by this pandemic. The third wave too cannot be ruled out,” Mitra said in his letter to Sitharaman. “...It is time we take extreme measures to bring relief to the people,” the Bengal FM said.
The next GST Council meeting will take place on May 28. Several states had demanded that the council meet to discuss several outstanding issues.
Some states such as West Bengal had also demanded waiver of GST on some items being used for battling Covid-19 but it had been rejected by Sitharaman who argued that such a move would hit users. In his letter Mitra also drew attention to the letter written by CM Mamata Banerjee to PM Modi urging for exemption of GST/customs duty on Covid essentials.