Waive tax on med items: Didi to PM

West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee on Sunday urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi in yet another letter not to levy the Central taxes and duties on a list of emergency medical equipments and drugs for Covid-19 treatment.

The TMC chief called for the waiver as the statewide daily spike in Covid-19 cases rose to 19,441 with 124 fresh deaths in the last 24 hours. Ms Banerjee wrote, “I am writing to you regarding a critical issue on facilitating augmentation of medical system including infrastructure, equipment, medicine and oxygen, necessitated due to sudden spike in the number of Covid cases in the country in general and also in West Bengal. We all are trying our best to face new challenges and making all efforts to channelize resources from different sources, including ensuring availability of life saving drugs and oxygen for Covid treatment.”

She pointed out, “A large number of organisations, 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.”

Ms Banerjee added, “However, many of the donors and agencies have approached the state government to consider exemption of these items from customs duty/SGST/ CGST/IGST. 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 above-mentioned life-saving drugs and equipment and contribute towards effective management of Covid pandemic.: