BHUBANESWAR : Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on Thursday requested the Centre for exemption of GST on purchase of Covid-19 vaccines and extend financial assistance to the states from the cess and surcharges to create an equal platform to fight the pandemic.
In a letter to the Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, Naveen said that the states have been asked to purchase vaccines from their own resources to cover the 18 to 44 years age group. These purchases attract GST, making vaccines costly for the states. This needs to be exempted completely. It will reduce the cost for states and facilitate the drive towards universal vaccination, he stated.
In a video message to the people on Saturday, the Chief Minister had said that the State government has placed orders for vaccine doses for everyone in the age group of 18 to 44 years. Around two crore people in the age group will benefit from the vaccination drive for which Rs 2,000 crore will be spent.
The State government had placed orders for 10.34 lakh doses of Covaxin from Bharat Biotech and 377 lakh doses of Covishield from Serum Institute of India on Sunday. While Covishield is priced at Rs 300 per dose for state government, Covaxin costs Rs 600 per dose. Covishield will cost Rs 1,131 crore and Covaxin Rs 62.04 crore.
The combined purchase cost for the State government comes to Rs 1,193.04 crore which will attract GST of Rs 59.69 crore at the rate of 5 per cent. The state government will get immediate relief of around Rs 60 crore for these purchases if GST is waived.
Arguing for GST exemption, the Chief Minister said it is important that the states are supported so that the entire country fights as one. Additional resources raised through various cess and surcharges on petrol, diesel and liquor, which are exclusively available to the Centre, should be suitably shared with state governments at this critical juncture. “This will strengthen our fight against the pandemic including the provision of vaccinations, free treatment, undertaking preventive measures and so on,” he stated.