NEW DELHI : Despite mounting pressure, the government has rejected calls for giving goods and services tax (GST) exemption to ventilators and other medical equipment, which are key to the fight the coronavirus pandemic, saying such a move will not benefit consumers much, but could bring hardship to domestic producers.
Exempting ventilators, masks, test kits and personal protection gear from GST will burden their domestic producers, who pay taxes on raw material with unusable tax credits, said a government official who asked not to be named.
This will add to their cost of production, a burden that imported rival products will not have to bear. The union government has come under political pressure from opposition parties, particularly the