India exempts oxygen concentrator imports from customs clearance, testing kits from duty

The Central Board of Indirect Taxes & Customs (CBIC) also said that Delhi customs has facilitated smooth clearance of Covid-19 materials received from the US.

India on Friday exempted import of oxygen concentrators for personal use, purchased from e-commerce portals through post or courier sans customs clearance. The exemption for oxygen concentrators will be available till July 31, the Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) said in a notification

Separately, the government also exempted the imports of Inflammatory Diagnostic (marker) kits, namely- IL6, D-Dimer, CRP, LDH, Ferritin, Pro Calcitonin (PCT) and blood gas reagents, from customs duty till October 31, to supplement testing efforts.

The exemption is crucial as many parts of the country have reported severe shortage of testing kits for investigations like D-Dimer, CRP, IL6 (interleukin 6) amid the rising Covid-19 cases, that skyrocketed to 3.86 lakh in the last 24 hours.

“Import of goods, including those purchased from e-commerce portals, through post or courier, where customs clearance is sought as gifts, is prohibited except for life saving drugs / medicines/ oxygen concentrators and rakhi (but not gifts related to rakhi),” the DGFT said in the notification.

The Central Board of Indirect Taxes & Customs (CBIC) also said that Delhi customs has facilitated smooth clearance of Covid-19 materials received from the US.

“@Delhicustoms facilitated swift clearance of COVID material received from USA covering 200 Size D oxygen cylinders with regulators, 223 Size H oxygen cylinders with regulators, 210 pulse oximeters, 184,000 Abbott Rapid Diagnostic Test Kits & 84,000 N-95 face masks,” CBIC said in a tweet.

The US has said it will send in more than $100 million of Covid supplies to India. These include 1,000 oxygen cylinders, 15 million N95 masks and 1 million rapid diagnostic tests and raw material to make over 20 million doses of AstraZeneca’s Covid-19 vaccine Covishield.