In your evening news brief, GST council cuts rates on Covid-19 essentials to 5%; Diesel at Rs 100 mark in Rajasthan, Karnataka sees petrol at Rs 100/litre and Priyanka Gandhi slams govt's Covid-19 response.
The GST Council Saturday waived tax rates on medicines to treat mucormycosis and reduced levies on a host of Covid-19 essentials such as ventilators, ambulances, test kits and hand sanitisers, in a move that is expected to give much-needed relief to the common man fighting the second wave of the pandemic.
GST rates were brought down to nil on mucormycosis drugs — Amphotericin and Tocilizumab — and reduced to 5% on Remdesivir, used for treating Covid, from the earlier 12%.
However, the GST rate on the Covid-19 vaccine will remain unchanged at 5%.
Diesel price on Saturday breached the Rs 100 per litre mark in Rajasthan after yet another increase in fuel rates, which also led to Karnataka becoming the 7th state to record Rs 100 a litre petrol.Petrol price was hiked by 27 paise per litre and diesel by 23 paise, according to a price notification of state-owned fuel retailers.
The hike, 23rd since May 4, pushed fuel prices across the country to new historic highs.
Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi on Saturday launched a scathing attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi over his handling of the Covid-19 pandemic, alleging that Indians do not come first for the PM, politics does and that truth does not concern him, propaganda does.
As part of her "Zimmedaar Kaun (who is responsible)" campaign, in which she has been asking questions of the government over its handling of the pandemic, the Congress general secretary focused on the "crisis of leadership" and claimed that the whole world has witnessed the prime minister's “incompetence at governance” during the pandemic.
Source: DHNS/ PTI