CBEC withdraws Import duty on vital radiopharmaceutical material

The Dollar Business Bureau

The CBEC in its recent notification No.61/2016-Customs dated 27/12/2016 has detailed that the import duty on Technitium-99m ((HS 2844) ) has been withdrawn.

India imports medically important radioisotopes such as Iodine-125, Iodine-131, Phosphorus-32, Samarium-153, Lutetium-177, Molybdenum-99 which are used for sourcing Technetium-99m.

These radioisotopes are imported from France, Russia, Kazakhstan which are then put to use in radiopharmaceutical research and development. India also imports Molybdemun-99/Techtinium-99 from Canada, Egypt and South Africa.

According to the report on G20 trade and investment measures at Hangzhou, China on 4-5 September 2016, G20 Leaders emphasised that strong economic growth must be reinforced by robust and sustainable trade. They reaffirmed their determination to ensure a rule-based, transparent, non-discriminatory, open and inclusive multilateral trading system with the World Trade Organization playing the central role and reiterated their opposition to protectionism on trade and investment in all its forms. G20 Leaders also extended their commitments to standstill and rollback of protectionist measures until the end of 2018 and expressed support for the work of the WTO and other international organisations in monitoring protectionism.

Agreeing to the measures adopted by G20 at China, India agreed to lift the import duty on Technitium-99m effective October 3, 2016.