GST Council meeting on May 28: Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman to chair video conference as states seek rate cuts on COVID-19 supplies

Finance Ministe Nirmala Sitharaman and Minister of State for Finance Anurag Thakur (Image: Finance Ministry Twitter handle)

After a gap of seven months, the GST Council meeting will be held on May 28, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman's office said on May 15. This comes as a number of states have sought GST rate cuts on essential Covid supplies, and have been seeking a Council meeting to discuss the matter.

The finance minister will chair the 43rd GST Council meeting via video conferencing at 11 AM in New Delhi on 28th May 2021. The meeting will be attended by Minister of State Anurag Thakur besides Finance Ministers of States & Union Territories and senior officers from Union Government & States, her office tweeted from its official account.

Moneycontrol was the first to report that a GST Council meeting would be held in May itself amid mounting pressure from the states to exempt or reduce rates on products like oxygen cylinders, ventilators, concentrators, and life-saving drugs like Remdesivir.

At least four states - Punjab, Chhattisgarh, Delhi and West Bengal - have written to the centre asking for exemptions on key Covid supplies and medical devices, and three of them have asked for a GST Council meeting.

The Centre has already exempted integrated GST on a number of imported items like concentrators, medical-grade oxygen, ventilators, and life-saving drugs which come in through the donation route.

However, Sitharaman, in her response to a letter from West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, said that exempting domestically produced and commercially imported items from GST will lead to manufacturers unable to avail of input tax credit, which in turn could lead to higher prices for customers.