The Finance Ministry has decided to give full exemption from basic customs duty on all drugs and food for special medical purposes imported for personal use for the treatment of all rare diseases listed under the National Policy for Rare Diseases 2021.

To avail of this exemption, the individual importer has to produce a certificate from the Central or State Director Health Services or District Medical Officer/Civil Surgeon of the district.

Drugs or medicines generally attract basic customs duty of 10 per cent, while some categories of lifesaving drugs/vaccines attract a concessional rate of 5 per cent or NIL.

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While exemptions have already been provided to specified drugs for the treatment of spinal muscular atrophy or duchenne muscular dystrophy, the government has been receiving many representations seeking customs duty relief for drugs and medicines used in the treatment of other rare diseases.

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Expensive medicines

Drugs or special foods required for the treatment of these diseases are expensive and need to be imported.

“It is estimated that for a child weighing 10 kg, the annual cost of treatment for some rare diseases may vary from ₹10 lakh to more than ₹1 crore per year with treatment being lifelong and drug dose and cost, increasing with age and weight,” a statement issued by the Finance Ministry said.

Further, this exemption will result in substantial cost savings and provide much-needed relief to the patients. The government has also fully exempted Pembrolizumab (Keytruda) used in the treatment of various cancers from basic customs duty.

This development has come at a time when Congress’s Member of Parliament from Kerala Shashi Tharoor recently expressed his appreciation to Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, along with her personal secretary and Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs Vivek Johri for the collective efforts, and resultant waiver of the IGST (Integrated Goods & Services Tax) usually imposed on injection for cancer treatment.

Others items for exemption

In another notification, the Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs exempted ten goods, being used in manufacturing X-ray machines from health cess. These include Static User Interface, X-Ray Diagnostic Table, Vertical Bucky, X-Ray Tube Suspension, High-Frequency X-Ray Generator, X-Ray Grid, Multi-Leaf Collimator/ Iris, Medical Grade Monitor, Flat Panel Detector including Scintillators and X-ray Tube. However, importers will have to fulfill conditions required for end use.

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