Finance Minister Piyush Goyal said in a recent tweet that the consignments of help and relief materials imported to Kerala from other states or abroad are exempted from IGST and basic customs duty. The GST relief is also applicable to the supplies made to support flood-hit areas in Kerala. The step was taken in a bid to provide support to those people who have been affected by the recent floods in the Indian state of Kerala.
The 2018 Kerala floods have reportedly claimed 223 lives so far. Many rescue operations from individuals, private and government organisations are ongoing to save people and provide every kind of support in this troubled situation.
The tweet by Finance Minister said, “India stands with Kerala in this hour of need. Central Government is exempting basic customs duty and IGST for the consignments of aid and relief materials being despatched or imported from abroad for the affected people.”
IGST is integrated GST which is levied on inter-state supplies and imports of goods and services in India.
The official notification regarding the order will be released shortly. The said GST exemptions will be valid on supplies made till December 31, 2018.
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Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan had earlier written to the Central Finance Minister asking to exempt Kerala relief supplies from GST and Customs Duty.
Help in the form of money, goods, food and voluntary support has been pouring from all over the country and even from abroad to assist people in Kerala. More than thousand people are still stuck in their houses in Kerala villages. An equal number of volunteers and government people are engaged in helping those in distress in the reason. The condition is gradually improving, with phone connectivity now has already restored in over 90% of the flood-affected areas.
Almost all the digital wallets, including PayTM, PhonePe, etc, are allowing people from all over the country to donate funds to help victims in Kerala. The fund and supplies this received will be exempted from any tax.
