The Centre on Saturday slashed basic customs duty and health cess on medical grade oxygen and 15 other related equipment to boost oxygen availability in the country amid the Covid-19 crisis which has battered the health infrastructure in the ongoing second wave.
The move to exempt the basic customs duty comes at a time when top hospitals in the national capital report depleting oxygen supply, threatening the lives of thousands of Covid-19 patients admitted in their units.
In a review meeting chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, it was suggested that the import of equipment related to providing oxygen to patients needs to be expedited. "In order to augment their production and availability and to meet the rising demand, it was decided to grant full exemption from Basic Customs Duty and health cess on import of the items related to Oxygen and Oxygen related equipment for a period of three months with immediate effect," a statement from the ministry of finance read.
These are the 16 items from which the cess has been removed till July this year:
- Medical grade Oxygen
- Oxygen concentrator along with flow meter, regulator, connectors and tubing
- Vacuum Pressure Swing Absorption (VPSA) and Pressure Swing Absorption (PSA) oxygen plants, Cryogenic Oxygen Air Separation Units (ASUs) producing liquid/ gaseous oxygen
- Oxygen Cannister
- Oxygen Filling Systems
- Oxygen Storage tanks, Oxygen cylinders including cryogenic cylinders and tanks
- Oxygen Generators
- ISO Containers for Shipping Oxygen
- Cryogenic Road transport tanks for Oxygen
- Parts of the above to be used for the manufacture of equipment for production, transportation, distribution or storage of Oxygen
- Any other device from which Oxygen can be generated
- Ventilators (capable of functioning as high-flow devices) with nasal canula; Compressors including all accessories and tubing; humidifiers and Viral filters
- High flow nasal canula device with all attachments
- Helmets for use with non-invasive ventilation
- Non-invasive ventilation oronasal masks for ICU ventilators
- Non-invasive ventilation nasal masks for ICU ventilators
These are the 16 items from which the cess has been removed till July this year:
- Medical grade Oxygen
- Oxygen concentrator along with flow meter, regulator, connectors and tubing
- Vacuum Pressure Swing Absorption (VPSA) and Pressure Swing Absorption (PSA) oxygen plants, Cryogenic Oxygen Air Separation Units (ASUs) producing liquid/ gaseous oxygen
- Oxygen Cannister
- Oxygen Filling Systems
- Oxygen Storage tanks, Oxygen cylinders including cryogenic cylinders and tanks
- Oxygen Generators
- ISO Containers for Shipping Oxygen
- Cryogenic Road transport tanks for Oxygen
- Parts of the above to be used for the manufacture of equipment for production, transportation, distribution or storage of Oxygen
- Any other device from which Oxygen can be generated
- Ventilators (capable of functioning as high-flow devices) with nasal canula; Compressors including all accessories and tubing; humidifiers and Viral filters
- High flow nasal canula device with all attachments
- Helmets for use with non-invasive ventilation
- Non-invasive ventilation oronasal masks for ICU ventilators
- Non-invasive ventilation nasal masks for ICU ventilators
Additionally, the government has decided to waive off basic customs duty on import of Covid-19 vaccines with immediate effect for a period of 3 months, the finance ministry's statement read.
"This will boost the availability of these items as well as make them cheaper. The PM directed the Revenue Department to ensure seamless and quick customs clearance of such equipment," the statement read.
For the third consecutive day, India on Saturday recorded over 3 lakh fresh infections, continuing the trend of registering the world's highest daily tally. With 3,46,786 people testing positive out of 17,53,569 tests in the last 24 hours, India's total Covid-19 tally reached 1,66,10481 on Saturday. The single-day toll also made a new record as 2,624 people died, taking India's total death tally to almost 1.9 lakh (1,89,544).