Decision to continue charging GST on Covid vaccines draconian: Mitra

Kolkata: Within hours after the conclusion of the 44th Goods and Service Tax (GST) Council meeting, Bengal Finance minister Amit Mitra wrote a letter of dissent to his Central counterpart Nirmala Sitharaman expressing his anguish over the Centre's "forced decision" to continue with the "anti-people" move of imposing GST on Covid vaccines and medical supplies.

He termed the decisions "draconian" and without any justification.

Mitra wrote the letter of dissent objecting to the "unprecedented" instances in today's GST council meeting in which his "voice was muzzled" and the meeting was brought to a close by cutting off his virtual link.

He also tweeted that "GoI led the anti-people move & IMPOSED GST on VACCINE, MASK, hand sanitiser, OXYGEN, PPE, oximeter, Covid test kit, Remdesivir, RT PCR machine...Since my voice IGNORED, I have recorded my DISSENT by letter. Unprecedented. Slow death of the only body of cooperative federalism".

"This is totally an anti-people decision that is being thrust on us at the GST Council. As representatives of the people, we have no way to justify these decisions of draconian nature. Therefore, you have left me no option but to record my dissent against these anti-people decisions which will hurt millions of people who are struggling to breathe and survive this pandemic. I tried my best to repeatedly raise my objection after you announced this decision, but unfortunately, I was never given the floor and my voice was muzzled, as the Secretary brought the meeting to a close and the virtual link was cut off.

Whither GST Council!" Mitra's two-page letter reads.

He expressed his anguish in the letter as he was not given floor despite repeated requests to respond to Sitharaman's comments in which she referred to several of his observations by name. "Instead the floor was given to the Minister from UP, who sought deletion of some of my comments by name and shockingly you agreed," he mentioned in the letter.

Terming the incident of muzzling his voice despite maintaining "the restrain and decorum" in all the previous GST Council meetings, Mitra stated the instances in Saturday's meeting have "dealt a major blow to the spirit of cooperative federalism undermining the very ethos of the GST Council".

With the meeting on the issue of tax rate cut on Covid vaccines and medical supplies when 3.76 lakh people — including 2 lakh in between January 16 in 2021 and May 1 in 2021 — died due to Covid, Mitra proposed "two consecutive alternatives in respect of GST, on Covid preventive materials, similar to several other Ministers". The first was to zero-rate Covid-related materials for a limited period of time, keeping in view the possibility of a third wave. The changes needed in the Act for the same could be easily done by an Ordinance considering the "gravity of the situation". The alternative that he proposed was a 0.1 per cent GST on the vaccines and medical supplies.

It is important to mention that Mitra had written a four-page letter to Sitharaman on June 4 and expressed his deep disappointment at heavy GSTs being proposed on items vital in the fight against Covid pandemic and communicated his apprehensions about the very constitution of a Group of Ministers (GoM) that is weighing the proposal of GST-waiver on Covid essentials.

Trinamool Congress, on Saturday, also called the Central government anti-people and demanded a complete waiver of any sort of taxes on medical equipment related to Covid treatment.

"It was on May 9 that Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi for waiving GST, customs duty and other taxes on medical equipment such as oxygen concentrators and cylinders and drugs for treating Covid patients. But the Centre has informed that they will charge tax for life-saving drugs and will also levy 12 per cent GST on ambulances. This is anti-people and we feel that it is unethical to charge taxes on medical equipment that are related to the Covid pandemic," TMC leader Bratya Basu said.

He maintained that Covid has affected more than 1 crore people in the country and 3.7 lakh people have died of the disease.

Taking a cue, TMC Rajya Sabha MP Sukhendu Sekhar Roy said that the Central government has been acting irresponsibly in dealing with the Covid situation and its levying of taxes bear testimony to this. "We strongly object to such a decision and demand immediate withdrawal of all taxes on Covid-related medical equipment," Roy added.