New Delhi, May 3 (IANS): Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia on Monday requested Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman to waive off GST on oxygen concentrators.

Welcoming reduction of IGST to 12 per cent on imports of oxygen concentrators through e-commerce platforms, Sisodia, in a letter to Sitharaman, said: "It would be appropriate if the government of India and GST Council consider exempting GST on Oxygen concentrators for the period of six months."

Sisodia had also requested the Defence Ministry to help make arrangements for supply of medical oxygen for the Covid health facility to be set up.

Considering the enormous number of cases, he said that the additional health infrastructure, being set up by the Delhi government, is likely to be filled up as soon as it is ready and "we need at least 10,000 oxygenated non-ICU beds and 1,000 ICU beds at the earliest to overcome this crisis".

Delhi at present has 16,272 non-ICU oxygen beds and 4,866 ICU beds, and the Delhi government is creating an additional 15,000 oxygenated non-ICU beds and 1,200 ICU beds which are likely to be operationalised over the next 10 days, he said.

In the letter to Rajnath Singh, Sisodia further sought the armed forces help in Delhi getting its oxygen supply. "It would be an extraordinary help from our Armed Forces if the Ministry of Defence can provide cryogenic tankers for transport of Liquid Medical Oxygen," he had said.