Bhubaneswar: Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on Thursday wrote to Centre and urged for exemption of GST on purchase of Vaccine for Covid 19 to fight against Covid. He also sought financial assistance to States from Cess and Surcharges collected by Government of India.
In a letter to Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, the CM wrote that the states have been asked to purchase vaccines out of their own resources to cover the 18 to 45 years age group of the population. These purchases attract the GST making the vaccines costly for the states. Hence GST needs to be exempted completely. It will reduce the cost for the States and facilitate our drive towards universal vaccination.
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The CM also urged the Finance Minister to provide financial assistance to States from Cess and surcharges collected by the Central Government to strengthen the fight against the pandemic.
“India is going through a tough phase in fighting the COVID-19 pandemic. It’s a war – like situation and all our resources should be focused on winning this war against Corona. This is not going to be a one-time battle. We will have a sustained challenge in this fight against Covid till serious advances are made in treatment and vaccination”, the Chief Minister also wrote in the letter.
Ms Kalinga