Tax on Air Purifiers: Delhi High Court questions the Centre, why can’t GST be reduced on air purifiers?
DelhiThe Delhi High Court on Friday asked the Center why the GST on air purifiers cannot be reduced to make them affordable for the common man, in view of the deteriorating air quality in the national capital and surrounding areas, The High Court raised this question with the Center after the counsel appearing for the Central Government argued that the GST Council is a constitutional body and it is no longer a unilateral tax of Delhi,
He said that this is a federal tax applicable throughout India, hence the consent of all the states and union territories is necessary and it also includes the Union Finance Minister as a member. Additional Solicitor General N Venkatraman, representing the central government, said voting has to be held in person and cannot be done through video conferencing.
He also said that the government will file a very detailed counter affidavit in the matter. A vacation bench of Justice Vikas Mahajan and Justice Vinod Kumar gave 10 days to the Central government to file its reply on the petition and posted the matter for further hearing on January 9. “But the concern of the court is that considering the situation in Delhi and surrounding areas, why the Goods and Services Tax (GST) should not be reduced from 18 per cent to five per cent,” the bench said.
The bench said, “You can adopt whatever method you want and find some way or the other.” The price starts from Rs 10,000-12,000 and goes up to Rs 60,000, which is out of the reach of the common man. Why not bring it to a reasonable level which is within the reach of the common man?” The court was hearing a public interest litigation (PIL) which has sought directions to the Central government to classify air purifiers as “medical devices” and reduce the Goods and Services Tax to five per cent.
Currently there is 18 percent tax on air purifiers. The plea, filed by advocate Kapil Madan, said that in view of the “extreme emergency” caused by severe air pollution in Delhi, air purifiers cannot be considered a luxury item. During the hearing, the bench told the petitioner that the court had sided with him in the previous hearing as well because the issue that has been raised is one that concerns “everyone”.
Agreeing with this, the ASG said that the matter was discussed at a high level, including the Finance Minister, and an emergency meeting was held on Thursday, but there are some concerns regarding this writ petition. The court asked the Additional Solicitor General what was the difficulty in holding the GST Council meeting. Earlier on December 24, the court had directed the GST Council to meet at the earliest and consider reducing or eliminating GST on air purifiers.
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