Delhi High Court slams 18 pc GST on air purifiers amid ‘very poor’ AQI
Court hears PIL seeking directions to Centre to classify air purifiers as 'medical devices' and reduce GST to 5 per cent
The Delhi High Court on Wednesday (December 24) expressed displeasure over the authorities "doing nothing" to grant exemption from taxes on air purifiers in this “emergency situation” when the Air Quality Index (AQI) is ‘very poor’.
A bench of Chief Justice Devendra Kumar Upadhyaya and Justice Tushar Rao Gedela asked the authorities’ counsel to take instructions on the issue and inform them of it.
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The court was hearing a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) seeking directions to the Union government to classify air purifiers as “medical devices” and reduce the Goods and Services Tax (GST) to the 5 per cent slab. Air purifiers are currently taxed at 18 per cent.
High Court slams Union govt
At the outset, the bench expressed displeasure that nothing had been done in the matter. It also said that every citizen requires fresh air, which the authorities are unable to provide.
“Let the purifiers be provided. That’s the minimum you can do. When will you come back?…. Even if it is for a temporary period, give the exemption for the next week or one month… Consider this an emergency, only for a temporary period. Take instructions and come back," the bench said, adding that “we will place it before the vacation bench only for compliance.
"As we speak, we all breathe. You know how many times we breathe in a day, at least 21,000 times a day. Just calculate the harm you are doing to your lungs just by breathing 21,000 times a day, and that’s involuntary.”
'Purifiers are not luxury items'
The petition by advocate Kapil Madan said that purifiers cannot be treated as luxury items in view of the “extreme emergency crisis” caused by severe air pollution in Delhi.
It contended that access to clean indoor air has become indispensable for health and survival.
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“Imposition of GST at the highest slab upon air-purifiers, a device that has become indispensable for securing minimally safe indoor air, renders such equipment financially inaccessible to large segments of the population and thereby inflicts an arbitrary, unreasonable, and constitutionally impermissible burden,” Madan noted in his plea.