There will soon be a rise in the bill of the patient, with the GST council deciding to impose a 12% GST upon the service of collection of biomedical waste through these hospitals. The same tax load would be passed on to the patients by the hospitals.
GST council will withdraw the exemptions on the same services. Indeed the council has imposed a 12% GST rate on the utilities that collect bio-medical waste (BMW) and dispose of it as per the specified procedures.
Nearly 200 operations of the Common Bio-Medical Waste Treatment Facilities (CBMWTF) in the country along with 25 in Gujarat. An association of these operators would pose its registered office in Rajkot shown to Union Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman last week and seeks her to continue this exemption for the subsequent 5 years.
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The bio-medical waste would be dangerous and thus needed to get disposed of as per the rules mentioned by the pollution control boards. The CBMWTFs furnished the services of the collection and disposal of the same waste to the healthcare establishments and the same services get exempted from the tax till now.
Through this decision, the CBMWTF operators will include 12 per cent GST in the invoices they issue to the hospitals.
CBMWTF Association of India president Vinod Kachhadia mentioned that “For the last two years, we have been disposing of the most contagious Covid wastes without charging extra amount from the hospitals. Most of our facilities have a turnover under Rs 3 crore and GST contribution will be meagre.”
For the conservation of the environment, the facilities work they function in the critical and essential healthcare sector. “That is why this service should be exempted from GST net,” The 25 facilities in Gujarat dispose of anywhere between 35 to 40 tonnes of medical waste every day.
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Rajkot Medical Association’s former president Dr Praful Kamani mentioned that the tax load would be shown on the bill of the patient. The corporate hospitals are existing levying changes to the medical record room. Post imposition of the GST these hospitals would add another column in the patient’s bill to collect the GST on the biomedical waste collection service.
Dr Hiren Kothari, a member of the central working committee of the Indian Medical Association, said: “We did not make any representation to the government regarding this. The tax burden will be passed on the patients by the hospitals.”
