GST Council May Cut Tax on Air and Water Purifiers to 5%

New Delhi, 30 December: The GST Council is considering reducing the tax rate on air and water purifiers from 18 percent to 5 percent in its upcoming meeting.

According to several reports quoting government sources, there is a proposal to reclassify these products from consumer goods to essential items. If approved, this change will make air and water purifiers more affordable, potentially lowering their prices by 10 to 15 percent and enabling a larger number of consumers to purchase them easily.

Currently, the date for the next GST Council meeting has not been fixed. The last 56th meeting of the Council took place in September, where the tax rates on these products were kept unchanged.

Recently, the Delhi High Court urged the government to consider reducing or abolishing GST on air purifiers via a virtual meeting, citing the poor air quality in the Delhi NCR region.

Additional Solicitor General N Venkataraman informed the court that meetings generally should be held in person and stated, “A process is underway, but we are not saying whether this will be done or not.”

The Delhi High Court observed that if clean air cannot be guaranteed to citizens, then at the very least GST on air purifiers should be reduced.

This statement was made during the hearing of a public interest litigation seeking to classify air purifiers as medical devices. The court had also directed the Centre to consider issuing immediate interim GST relief.

The petition highlighted that high-efficiency air purifiers play a preventive medical role by reducing exposure to PM 2.5, PM 10, and other harmful pollutants.

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ABS/