West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Sunday wrote a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi requesting him towaive GST, customs obligation, taxes from oxygen concentrators, cylinders, and covid associated medicine.
“A large number of organizations, individuals, and benevolent agencies have come forward to donate oxygen concentrators, cylinders, cryogenic storage tanks, tankers and tank containers, and COVID-related drugs. Donations from these organisations will greatly supplement the efforts of the state government in meeting the huge gap in demand and supply,” Banerjee wrote within the letter.
The chief minister added, “However, many of the donors and agencies have approached the State Government to consider exemption of these items from customs duty/SGST/CGST/lGST. As the rate structure falls under the purview of the Central Government, I would request that these items may be exempted from GST/customs duty and other such duties and taxes, to help remove supply constraints of the abovementioned life-saving drugs and equipment and contribute towards effective management of COVID pandemic.”
In a letter earlier, Banerjee requested the prime minister to permit free-of-cost vaccination in opposition to Covid-19 to all. She additionally requested him to make sure satisfactory provide of important medicine and hike allocation of medical oxygen for West Bengal.
In the letter, the chief minister careworn 4 particular factors. Firstly, she requested common immunisation for all in a clear and time-bound method. “At present vaccine availability is too inadequate to provide to eligible beneficiaries and government of India direction to extend vaccination up to 18 years plus makes it unrealistic to achieve. So supply of vaccines is the core issue to address now,” Mamata stated.
