At the 45^th meeting of the GST council at Lucknow in UP, the government has decided to extend the existing concessional GST rates (currently valid till Sept 30, 2021, to Dec 31, 2021. Under the concession medicines such as Amphotericin B and Tocilizumab will be exempted from GST while Remdesivir and Anti-coagulants like Heparin will continue to attract GST of only 5 per cent, a ministry release said.

The GST council has also reduced the GST to 5 per cent on more Covid-19 treatment drugs up to Dec 31, 2021. They are Itolizumab, Posaconazole, Infliximab, Favipiravir Casirivimab and  Imdevimab, 2-Deoxy-D-Glucose, Bamlanivimab and Etesevimab.

It has also been clarified that all pharmaceutical goods falling under the heading 3006 will attract a GST at the rate of 12 % and not 18 %, the release added.

In other concessions, the GST on import of medicines for personal use, namely Zolgensma for Spinal Muscular Atrophy, Viltepso for Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy and other medicines used in the treatment of muscular atrophy recommended by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare and the Department of Pharmaceuticals which attracted a GST of 12 per cent has now been exempted completely.

Finally, the medicine Keytruda for the treatment of cancer has seen a GST reduction from 12 per cent to 5 per cent.