NEW DELHI: Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra on Friday urged the Centre to remove GST on all life-saving medicines and equipment being used in the fight against COVID-19, asserting that charging tax on such items amid the pandemic amounts to "cruelty".
Her appeal to the government came ahead of the GST Council meeting, which decides on taxes on goods and services, later on Friday.
Recovering GST on COVID-related products from people who struggled for ambulances, beds, ventilators, oxygen, medicines, vaccines during the pandemic amounts to "cruelty and insensitivity", Priyanka Gandhi said in a tweet in Hindi. "Today, in the GST Council, the government should remove GST on all life-saving medicines and equipment being used in the fight against COVID," the Congress general secretary said.
She also attached a list of items being commonly used in the fight against coronavirus and the rate of GST charged on them.