New Delhi: The Delhi High Court on Wednesday voiced strong displeasure over the authorities’ failure to consider tax relief on air purifiers despite the capital
grappling with ‘very poor’ air quality levels. Calling the situation an “emergency”, the court said citizens were being left without even the most basic protection against toxic air. A bench headed by Chief Justice Devendra Kumar Upadhyaya and Justice Tushar Rao Gedela asked the counsel appearing for the authorities to seek instructions on granting temporary tax exemption on air purifiers and report back at 2.30 pm.
The court was hearing a public interest litigation seeking directions to the Centre to classify air purifiers as medical devices and bring them under the five per cent GST slab, instead of the current 18 per cent tax. At the outset, the bench remarked that nothing had been done so far, observing that when the state cannot provide clean air, ensuring access to purifiers was the minimum it could do.
At the outset, the bench expressed displeasure that nothing has been done in the matter and said that every citizen requires fresh air, which the authorities were not able to provide. “Let the purifiers be provided. That’s the minimum you can do. When will you come back?…. Even if it is for temporary, give exemption for next one week or one month… Consider this an emergency situation, only for temporarily. Take instructions and come back. “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,” the bench said.
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. “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,” the plea said.
(With inputs from PTI)
