The Government on Tuesday rejected Congress Vice-President Rahul Gandhi's allegations of GST tax rates being ‘insensitive’ to the disabled, saying assistive devices for the physically-challenged will be charged at a concessional 5 per cent. From Braille writers and Braille paper to wheelchairs, talking books, assistive listening devices and implants for the everely physically-challenged will attract a GST of 5 per cent.
But inputs and raw material for manufacturing of these assistive devices or equipment attract 18 per cent GST. Since the final consumer tax is lower than the tax on inputs, a domestic manufacturer can claim refund, an official statement said. Explaining the rationale, it said if these devices or equipment were exempted from GST, imports would continue to be at zero per cent duty. This would mean that domestically manufactured devices and equipment would bear the burden of input taxes, increasing their cost and becoming uncompetitive to imports.
“In fact, the 5 per cent concessional GST rate on such devices and equipment will result in a win-win situation for both the users of such devices, the disabled persons, as well as the domestic manufacturers of such goods. It is for this reason that the Council has kept these items in 5 per cent rate slab,” the statement said.