Duty relief on 18 Covid items extended
The Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC) on Monday extended the import duty relief on 18 Covid-19related supplies, including medical oxygen, related gear and covid vaccines, by a month till the end of September.
CBIC said in a notification that the extension of the duty relief was being made in public interest. The relief initially granted in April till end of July was already extended once.
In addition to oxygen, 11 items in the list of products receiving duty relief relate to oxygen production, storage, transportation or its administration.
Ventilators, nasal cannula and helmets used with non-invasive ventilation are among the other items that get the duty relief. The duty relief entails full exemption from basic customs duty and health cess.
The duty relief was announced when the second wave of coronavirus was wreaking havoc in India and the country was struggling to meet the oxygen demands. The government had decided in a meeting that the import of equipment related to providing oxygen to patients needed to be expedited.
Coronavirus vaccines were also to be exempted from basic customs duty, as per the April notification. Prime Minister Narendra Modi had also asked the Revenue Department to ensure seamless and quick customs clearance of such items.
Medical grade oxygen, oxygen concentrators, canisters, filling systems, tanks, generators, ISO containers for shipping oxygen, any other device from which oxygen can be generated, ventilators, high flow nasal cannula device, and more are exempted from the duty and cess.
As of August 30, India has over 376,000 active coronavirus cases and have reported a total death toll of 438,000, the Union health ministry said in an update posted on its website. India is reporting 38,685 new infections on average each day, 10% of the peak, according to a Covid-19tracker of Reuters news agency.