Today, the Union Budget was presented by the Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman which proposed basic customs duty (BCD), relief on import of life saving drugs/medicines.
With the objective to provide relief to patients, particularly those suffering from cancer, rare diseases and other severe chronic diseases, the Finance Minister, Nirmala Sitharaman
proposed to add 36 lifesaving drugs and medicines to the list of medicines fully exempted from Basic Customs Duty (BCD).
Further, 6 lifesaving medicines was added to the list attracting concessional customs duty of 5%. Full exemption and concessional duty will also respectively apply on the bulk drugs for manufacture of the above.
Specified drugs and medicines under Patient Assistance Programmes run by pharmaceutical companies are fully exempt from BCD, provided the medicines are supplied free of cost to patients. It was further proposed to add 37 more medicines along with 13 new patient assistance programmes.
Official Copy Of Budget Documents
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