Wheelchair Tax – GST on Disability Aids is Unfair

Consider the case of a wheelchair user who pays 5% GST on a motorised wheelchair costing Rs 100,000. If the life span of the wheelchair is considered to be 500 kilometres, the tax burden on the disabled user can easily be calculated at Rs 10 per kilometre. Naturally, an able-bodied person would scoff at the idea of ​​having to pay the government a tax for every kilometre walked. Similarly, a blind person today has to bear the tax burden of a Braille publisher, which is an additional tax due solely to his blindness. Such a tax levied on goods used by disabled persons for mobility and acquisition of knowledge is the most explicit and bitter form of discrimination.

The Supreme Court has had many opportunities to test the constitutionality of a tax levied by the government in landmark cases such as Sakal Papers (1961), Indian Express (1984) and most recently, Aashirwad Films (2007). Our judges have consistently struck down any tax, duty or fee that has the effect of restricting, even indirectly, a fundamental right. In Sakal Papers, the Supreme Court struck down the government’s restrictions on newspaper advertising as violating freedom of expression – noting that a reduction in advertising would reduce the circulation of the newspaper, thereby affecting a citizen’s fundamental right to freedom of speech and expression under Article 19(1)(a). Similarly, in the Indian Express case, which came 23 years after the Sakal Papers case, the Supreme Court, while striking down the customs duty imposed on newsprint, called such a tax “a burden imposed on the common man because he is educated and aware of his duty as a citizen to inform himself about the world around him”. In the Aashirwad Films case, the Supreme Court considered the constitutionality of a tax levied on non-Telugu films screened in Andhra Pradesh. While striking down this clearly discriminatory tax, the Court went so far as to call it “socially divisive”.

The disability aid tax is no different. It perpetuates negative stereotypes about people with disabilities by specifically penalizing their disability relative to their able-bodied counterparts who do not bear such a tax burden to perform the most basic tasks – walking and reading. In 2024, such a tax regime must no longer remain in place. Even when tested in light of Article 15, which prohibits discrimination based on “place of birth,” this tax fails. The term “place of birth” in this provision must be interpreted purposively to include people with disabilities and, on this ground as well, such a tax must be repealed. In fact, the government enacted the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act 2016, which, under Article 3, specifically prohibits discrimination against people with disabilities. Chief Justice DY Chandrachud, in a landmark 2021 judgment on Article 15 (Lt. Col. Nitisha), held that the conception of equality requires recognition of indirect discrimination.

Even though the GST revenue collected on disability benefits is minuscule compared to the total figure, it is a question of dignity for disabled people and by taxing them for something as basic as movement and reading, we are sending them a message not of empowerment but of inferiority.

The author is an advocate practicing before the Supreme Court of India.