Tax cuts on most COVID-related goods in GST council meet. See full list here

Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman chaired the 43rd GST Council meet in New Delhi on Saturday. The meeting was attended by the Minister of State for Finance Anurag Thakur, besides finance ministers of states and Union territories and senior officers from Union government and states.

The Council discussed GST concessions on COVID-19 relief items, vaccines, drugs and medicines for COVID-19 treatment. Currently, 5% GST is levied on domestically manufactured COVID vaccines while 12% for COVID drugs and oxygen concentrators.

Here’s the full list of goods on which GST has been levied:

– GST on electric furnaces and temperature checking equipment brought down to 5% and on ambulances to 12%.

– These rates will be valid till September as against August end recommended by the GoM.

– GST rates decided for four categories of products- medicines, oxygen, oxygen-generation equipment, testing kits and other machines and other COVID-19 related relief material

Rates to be announced soon.

– 5% GST on vaccines remains unchanged. The Centre will procure the 75% vaccine as announced and will pay its GST, too.

70% of income from GST will be shared with States, the Finance Minister said.

-A reduction in rate for Remdesivir from 12% to 5% was announced. No tax on Tocilizumab, Amphotericin B medicines.

-GST on ambulances cut to 12% from 28%.