Indian gov’t exempts basic customs duty on drugs for rare diseases

NEW DELHI, March 30 (Xinhua) — The Indian government Thursday said basic customs duty on all imported drugs and food for special medical purposes for personal use for the treatment of all rare diseases listed under the National Policy for Rare Diseases 2021 has been exempted.

According to the federal finance ministry, the individual importer has to produce a certificate from the health department officials to avail exemption.

Drugs and medicines otherwise attract basic customs duty of 10 percent, while some categories of lifesaving drugs and vaccines attract a concessional rate of 5 percent or nil.

As per the official notification, the import duty waiver will come into effect from April 1.

Officials said the exemption will result in substantial cost savings and provide much-needed relief to the patients.

(Web editor: Zhang Kaiwei, Liang Jun)