Customs to clear imported COVID drugs on highest priority

All import consignments of life-saving drugs and critical oxygen equipment related to fighting COVID-19 disease will be now quickly passed on a high-priority basis by custom officials without much delay.

This comes in the wake of a directive passed by the Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC) to all its field officers to expedite the clearance of all imported materials and equipment used in treating COVID patients to ensure they can reach them on time and save lives, said a Deccan Herald report.

In fact, the Board said in a tweet that ‘CBIC has given directions to all its field formations to clear these consignments on the highest priority’.

Also read: Govt scrambles for oxygen supplies as India continues to shatter COVID records

Taking into account the COVID-19 scourge in the country, it has become imperative that critical raw materials, life-saving drugs etc., which are imported should reach the intended users and beneficiaries in time.

Therefore, the CBIC said in a communication to its customs officers that they should all become “sensitised” about the urgency of this matter and on a high priority, release all the goods related to COVID-19 pandemic, including the vital and crucial oxygen equipment.

This decision by the CBIC was further endorsed by a tweet posted by the Commerce and Industry minister, Piyush Goyal that customs will speed up clearances for import consignments concerned with the pandemic “to ensure critical equipment and medicine can reach on time”.

Also read: Centre removes customs duty on vaccines, equipment for oxygen supply

The government has already waived all customs duty on imported Remdesivdir injections and the drug’s active pharmaceutical ingredients (API) to increase the supplies even as citizens are scrambling in panic for this critical drug.

Meanwhile, India has recorded 3,46,786 new infections in a 24-hour period – the highest daily count in a single country. Over the past two months, the outbreak in India has exploded, with reports of super spreader gatherings, oxygen shortages and medicine shortages.