Which 36 life-saving drugs are exempted from BCD?

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman recently announced that 36 life-saving drugs, including essential medicines for cancer and other rare diseases, would be exempt from basic customs duty. This decision was made during her Budget 2025 speech.

She also shared that 37 more medicines would be added to this list. Additionally, the government will set up 200 cancer daycare centers in government hospitals across all districts within the next three years.

List of 36 life-saving medicines exempted from custom duty

Sitharaman said, “To provide relief to patients, particularly those suffering from cancer, rare diseases and other severe chronic diseases, I propose to add 36 lifesaving drugs and medicines to the list of medicines fully exempted from Basic Customs Duty (BCD). I also propose to add 6 lifesaving medicines to the list attracting concessional customs duty of 5 percent. Full exemption and concessional duty will also respectively apply on the bulk drugs for manufacture of the above.”

She also mentioned that medicines provided under Patient Assistance Programmes (PAPs) run by pharmaceutical companies will be fully exempt from customs duty, as long as they are supplied for free to patients. “I propose to add 37 more medicines along with 13 new patient assistance programmes,” she added.

37 life-saving medicines and 30 new assistance programs exempted

The Finance Ministry stated, “This notification will come into effect on February 2, 2025.”

In her Budget 2024 speech, Sitharaman proposed fully exempting three cancer treatment medicines from basic customs duty to aid cancer patients. She also suggested changes to the basic customs duty for X-ray tubes and flat panel detectors used in medical X-ray machines, as part of the phased manufacturing programme to align with domestic capacity growth.

In July last year, the Health Ministry was allocated Rs 90,958.63 crore in the Union Budget 2024-25, marking a 12.9% increase compared to the previous year’s revised estimate of Rs 80,517.62 crore.

The financial challenges are growing as India faces a rising cancer burden. According to a study published in the Indian Journal of Medical Research, India recorded around 1.46 million new cancer cases in 2022, with lung cancer being the most common among men, and breast cancer being the most common among women.

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