New Delhi: Many kinds of questions are being raised on the imposition of 18% Goods and Services Tax (GST) on hand sanitizers. Meanwhile, the Finance Ministry has claimed that if it is reduced, it will hurt the government's self-reliance campaign and consumers will not be particularly benefited from it.

The Finance Ministry said, 'There have been reports in the media regarding the GST rate on alcohol-based hand sanitizer. Sanitizers are kept in the disinfectant category just like soap, anti-bacterial liquid, Dettol, etc. How much GST is to be levied on various items is determined by the GST Council where the central government and all the state governments decide together. On Wednesday, the Finance Ministry gave a clarification, 'The raw materials used to make hand sanitizer, such as chemical, packaging material, etc., these items attract 18 percent GST. So lowering the GST rate on sanitizers will lead to an inverted duty structure (inverted tax structure) and will result in losses to domestic manufacturers as compared to importers.'

The Finance Ministry said that by reducing the GST rate, its import will become cheaper. This will be against the policy of the country's self-reliant India. Not only this, if the domestic manufacturers face problems with the reverse tax structure, then ultimately the consumers will not get the benefit.

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