New Delhi: A petition has been filed in the Supreme Court seeking directions to exempt the medicines and equipment used in the treatment of COVID 19 from Goods and Services Tax (GST).
The plea was filed by Public Policy Advocates, contending that it is a pandemic situation and in such circumstances, it is a public necessity to exempt the drugs like Remdesvir, Tocilizumab, Favipiravir etc and medical equipment like ventilators, BiPAP machines etc from the GST regime to make it more affordable.
"The Right to Health in times of pandemic assumes an ever more crucial significance since affordable healthcare and availability of drugs which are critical to fighting moderate and severe cases of illness have to be given paramount importance. This would have the effect of preventing black marketing, hoarding of such drugs and other medical equipment, as well as would ensure that the same is available to the citizens at affordable cost," read the plea.
Earlier today, requesting to pass immediate directions and orders for uniform guidelines on certain matters related to the Covid-19 pandemic, a group of law students from across India has sent a combined letter petition to the Chief Justice of India (CJI) Nuthalapati Venkata Ramana.
The group led by Aditya Kashyap, a final year law student at National Law University (NLU), Punjab, has pleaded to the CJI to pass immediate appropriate directions to curb black-marketing of critical medicines, and how to provide oxygen cylinders to the people in need.
Currently, India is facing an unprecedented crisis during the second wave of COVID-19, and the pressure on the health infrastructure and the critical medicine supply chain is enormous, as well as there is widespread panic amongst citizens at large.
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