Odisha CM requests centre to exempt vaccines from GST

Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik has requested the Centre to exempt vaccines from GST. In a letter to the Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman yesterday, Mr Patnaik has said that this will reduce the cost of vaccines in the states thereby facilitating universal vaccination against covid-19.

Mr Patnaik has also urged the exclusively available to the centre through various cess and surcharges on petrol, diesel and liquor. The financial push thus generated will enable the states to ensure that the entire nation fights as one against the pandemic.

 

Meanwhile, after reviewing the covid-19 situation in Odisha through video conferencing yesterday, Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan today will virtually



inaugurate one hundred ICU beds with ventilators in a private hospital in Bargarh in western Odisha, with financial support from  Indian Oil to the tune of 11 crore 50 lakh rupees.

 

On the other hand, following direction from the Union Petroleum and Natural Gas and Steel Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, the Rourkela Steel Plant in Odisha has so far dispatched more than 1500 tonnes of Liquid Medical Oxygen through the Oxygen Express and tankers to different states. Back home, evens as the state wide lockdown enters the third day today, the total covid-19 active caseload of the state has further shot up beyond 80 thousand with the detection of about 10 thousand five hundred new cases yesterday.