Kerala biomedical waste plant's GST registration cancelled, waste disposal to be hit?
The Kerala State Goods and Services Tax (SGST) department has cancelled the GST registration of Indian Medical Association Goes Ecofriendly (IMAGE), an entity that does biomedical waste management in the state. The cancellation means that IMAGE is no longer permitted to bill for its services, potentially disrupting biomedical waste disposal operations, including in its facility in Kanjikode, Palakkad.
State Tax Officer Bindu Soman issued the cancellation order on January 31, 2025, retroactively effective from December 13, 2024. In response, IMAGE said that the decision poses a significant public health risk. “IMAGE is involved in the treatment and disposal of biomedical hospital wastes. Clearly, this is a key activity and one of great public importance. Cancelling registration of such an entity would have deleterious, ruinous effects on the carrying of this essential activity — the consequences need no elaboration,” the organisation stated in its reply to the tax department.
The GST department’s investigation revealed that IMAGE is not a separate legal entity but a project under the Indian Medical Association’s (IMA) Kerala state branch. While IMA is registered as a charitable organisation and cannot engage in commercial business, IMAGE has been charging hospitals, clinics, and laboratories for waste disposal. Key financial operations such as billing and contracts were found to be handled by IMA, with IMAGE playing no independent role. Despite this, the GST registration was taken solely in IMAGE’s name.
IMAGE operates from the premises of IMA’s headquarters in Thiruvananthapuram. Officials questioned why there were no rental receipts for the two if IMAGE and IMA were separate entities. The SGST department’s order stated, “Upon verifying the documents provided, it has come to our attention that you obtained GST registration using the documents of another taxpayer named M/s Indian Medical Association Kerala State Branch Trivandrum, rather than your own.”
The inquiry, launched on November 30, 2024, found that IMAGE was registered under the Kerala GST Act for dealing in waste scrap, biomedical waste management, and cleaning services. However, the contract for biomedical waste management was between IMA Kerala State Branch and M/s GJ Multiclave India Private Limited, with no documents proving IMAGE’s independent role in the agreement.
Concerns of illegal dumping in Karnataka, TN
According to IMAGE, over 18,000 healthcare establishments rely on it for biomedical waste disposal. It has the capacity to handle 80 tonnes of biomedical waste per day and manages more than 82% of the total biomedical waste generated in Kerala.
If IMAGE’s functioning is brought to a halt, it will worsen the already shoddy management of biomedical waste in the state. Agencies in charge of managing such waste produced in Kerala’s hospitals are notorious for dumping untreated biomedical waste in neighbouring Tamil Nadu and Karnataka. For years, Kerala’s neighbours have raised health and environmental concerns arising from the illegal waste dumping.
