Delhi HC expresses displeasure over lack of action on air pollution, questions 18% GST on air purifiers

New Delhi: The Delhi High Court on Wednesday expressed displeasure over the authorities doing nothing to grant exemption from taxes on air purifiers in this “emergency situation” when the air quality index (AQI) is ‘very poor’. A bench of Chief Justice Devendra Kumar Upadhyaya and Justice Tushar Rao Gedela asked the authorities’ counsel to take instructions on the issue and inform it at 2:30 pm. The court was hearing a public interest litigation (PIL) seeking directions to the central government to classify air purifiers as “medical devices” and reduce the goods and services tax (GST) to the five per cent slab. Air purifiers are currently taxed at 18 per cent.

At the outset, the bench expressed displeasure that nothing has been done in the matter and said that every citizen requires fresh air, which the authorities were not able to provide. “Let the purifiers be provided. That’s the minimum you can do. When will you come back?…. Even if it is for temporary, give exemption for next one week or one month… Consider this an emergency situation, only for temporarily. Take instructions and come back. “We will place it before the vacation bench only for compliance. As we speak, we all breathe. You know how many times we breathe in a day, at least 21,000 times a day. Just calculate the harm you are doing to your lungs just by breathing 21,000 times a day, and that’s involuntary,” the bench said. The petition by advocate Kapil Madan said that purifiers cannot be treated as luxury items in view of the “extreme emergency crisis” caused by severe air pollution in Delhi. It contended that access to clean indoor air has become indispensable for health and survival. “Imposition of GST at the highest slab upon air-purifiers, a device that has become indispensable for securing minimally safe indoor air, renders such equipment financially inaccessible to large segments of the population and thereby inflicts an arbitrary, unreasonable, and constitutionally impermissible burden,” the plea said.