Centre exempts Customs Duty, Cess on import of Covid-19 test kits, ventilators, face masks

The Centre on Thursday exempted imports of Covid-19 test kits, ventilators and face masks from import duty and the health cess, the Finance Ministry announced late on Thursday evening.

The two exemptions shall be available upto 30 September 2020. Most of these items attracted a 7.5per cent basic customs duty. The 5% health cess on the customs duty payable on medical devices was introduced in 2020 to fund expansion of medical infrastructure in the country.

The finance ministry said the decision had been taken considering the immediate requirement of these items in the context of the Covid-19.

Thursday’s decision comes as the government and the health sector looks to import more of these devices to supplement domestic production as the disease continues to spread.

Just a few hours earlier, the Indian Council of Medical Research also liberalised its testing guidelines that calls for testing “asymptomatic direct and high-risk contacts of a confirmed case” between days 5 and day 14 of coming in contact with a Covid-19 patient.

India’s restrictive Covid-19 testing policy has been linked by experts to a lower proportion of people testing positive than in many other countries. It is feared that the number of patients would rise if India were to test greater numbers. Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal had recently explained a spike in Delhi cases - apart from those linked to the Tablighi Jamaat - to the city’s aggressive testing policy.

According to the Union Health Ministry, the number of patients in the country has topped 5,800 patients. Since there is a lag between states confirming Covid-19 cases and the Health Ministry updating its database, the number of cases is expected to have crossed 6,000.

The 21-day national lockdown announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi ends next week but it is expected that the central government may not abruptly lift the lockdown. State governments, which have lately shifted the focus to areas that have reported coronavirus cases, have been focussing on sealing these locations. As part of this protocol, people in these containment zones have been prohibited from stepping out, not even to go to grocery stores.

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