Finance Minister, Dr Rameshwar Oraon said on Saturday that in view of Covid-19, imposing 5 per cent GST on medicines, health equipment and any other material related to it is completely unfair and is a betrayal with the people of the Country. Oraon said that the imposition of GST could have been considered after the Covid-19 period, but in the present era, the imposition of GST shows the autocracy of the Central Government. The people of the Country cannot tolerate this anti-people policy of the Central Government at all, he added.

The Finance Minister said that in view of the adverse circumstances of the Corona period, the demand of the states to reduce the GST on health equipment to zero per cent to the Central Government was ignored by the Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman.

Speaking on behalf of the Jharkhand Government in a virtual meeting held under the chairmanship of Union Finance Minister Dr Nirmala Sitharaman, he had said that such an epidemic has not been seen in the last hundred years, in such a situation, all types of health equipment including oxygen concentrators, pulse oximeters, medicines are being used. He said that to reduce GST to zero per cent was requested in the meeting of May 28 and similar demand was made by nine non-BJP ruled states also.

Oraon said that the Union Finance Minister had formed a team of seven Chief Ministers; mostly BJP’s Chief Ministers, which decided to levy 5 per cent GST, rejecting the demand of the non-BJP ruled states.