Respected Madam,

As you are aware, Delhi is in the midst of unprecedented COVID surge which has stretched the health infrastructure to the maximum level.

At present, Delhi has 16,272 non-ICU oxygen beds and 4,866 ICU beds.

The Delhi Government is creating an additional 15,000 oxygenated non-ICU beds and 1,200 ICU beds which are likely to be operationalized over the next ten days. The work is going on 24×7 on war-footing basis.

On an average, there has been 25,000 new COVID cases everyday and about 10% of them require some form of hospitalization including oxygen support.

More than 50,000 patients currently are in home isolation and about a quarter of them need some form of oxygen support at home due to difficulty in availability of oxygen beds in the NCT of Delhi.

Oxygen concentrators are in short supply and even if one manages to arrange oxygen cylinder, there is unprecedented shortfall in the availability of medical oxygen creating uncertainty and panic among patients under home isolation.

There is no availability of oxygen concentrators in the market.

I am grateful to the Government of India for allowing the import of oxygen concentrators for personal use through e-commerce portals till 31st July, 2021 and also the reduction of IGST on such imports from 28% to 12%.

During this unprecedented health crisis, oxygen concentrators have become essential life support machines.

It would be appropriate if the Government of India and the GST Council consider exempting GST on oxygen concentrators for a period of six months to make them more affordable for our citizens.

With profound regards,

Manish Sisodia