In order to take a call on the recommendations made by the GOM(constituted in 43^rd GST council meeting held on 28^th May 2021 to decide further tax relief on  individual covid relief items) in its report submitted to Finance Ministry, Meeting of GST Council held on Saturday, 12th June 2021 through video conferencing under the chairmanship of Hon’ble Union Finance Minister “Mrs. Niramala Sitaraman” accompanied by minister for state for finance (MOS) Mr. Anurag Thakur, finance minister of states & UTs and senior officers.

Highlights of the meeting:

Apart from waiving the tax on black fungus drug, tax rates on several other covid relief related items have been reduced however tax rate on covid vaccine remained intact at 5%. All the exemptions/reductions are valid till 30^th September, 2021.

Category wise exemption/reduction in tax rate tabled below:

S. No.	Description	Current GST Rate	Recommended GST Rate
MEDICINES
(i)	Tocilizumab	5%	NIL
(ii)	Amphotericin B	5%	NIL
(iii)	Anti-Coagulants like Heparin	12%	5%
(iv)	Remdesivir	12%	5%
(v)	Any other drug recommended by Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW) and Dept. of Pharma (DoP) for Covid treatment	Applicable Rate	5%
OXYGEN, OXYGEN GENERATION EQUIPMENT AND RELATED MEDICAL DEVICES
(i)	Medical Grade Oxygen	12%	5%
(ii)	Oxygen Concentrator/ Generator, including personal imports thereof	12%	5%
(iii)	Ventilators & Ventilator masks / canula / helmet	12%	5%
(iv)	BiPAP Machine & High flow nasal canula (HFNC) device	12%	5%
TESTING KITS AND MACHINES
(i)	Covid Testing Kits	12%	5%
(ii)	Specified Inflammatory Diagnostic Kits,( D-Dimer, IL-6,Ferritin & LDH)	12%	5%
OTHER COVID-19 RELATED RELIEF MATERIAL
(i)	Pulse Oximeters, incl personal imports thereof	12%	5%
(ii)	Hand Sanitizer &  Temperature check equipment	18%	5%
(iii)	Gas/Electric/other furnaces for crematorium, including their installation, etc.	18%	5%
(iv)	Ambulances	28%	12%