In a relief for cancer patients, 17 life-saving drugs have been fully exempted from basic customs duty, while seven more diseases have been added to the list.
The move, announced by finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Sunday in her budget speech, seeks to lower the cost of critical cancer treatments and expand access to vital medicines, especially for patients who rely on imported drugs for advanced and complex cancers.
“To provide relief to patients, particularly those suffering from cancer, I propose to exempt basic customs duty on 17 drugs or medicines. I propose also to add 7 more rare diseases for the purposes of exempting import duties on personal import of drugs, medicines and food for special medical purposes used in their treatment,” Sitharaman said.
According to the 1 February gazette notification, duty has been reduced to nil on high-cost treatments such as Ribociclib and Abemaciclib, which are targeted therapies for metastatic breast cancer, and Venetoclax, used for chronic lymphocytic leukaemia. Other drugs covered include Ceritinib and Brigatinib for non-small cell lung cancer, as well as Darolutamide for prostate cancer. The notification also extended duty-free status to medicines for seven additional rare diseases, which include specialized medical foods and drugs imported for personal use by patients.
Ribociclib, Abemaciclib, and Venetoclax are among the costliest, often running into several lakhs of rupees per treatment cycle, while annual costs for rare disease medicines can reach tens of lakhs, making them unaffordable for many families without insurance.
The duty exemption is a significant relief compared to previous years. In the previous budget, the standard basic customs duty on these critical imported medicines typically ranged from 5% to 10%, with some categories attracting duties as high as 11%.
“Many of these life-saving therapies are imported and remain out of reach due to high costs,” said Sheetal Arora, Promoter and chief executive officer, Mankind Pharma. “Reducing duties will directly improve affordability, enable earlier access to treatment, and reduce the financial strain on families facing long-term care. This is a patient-centric intervention that can make a real difference in outcomes for those battling cancer and rare diseases.”
“India’s disease burden is observed to be shifting towards non-communicable diseases like diabetes, cancer and autoimmune diseases. Biological medicines are key to longevity and quality of life at affordable costs,” he added.
These relief measures aim to ease costs for patients, especially those receiving cancer care, and to expand the scope of duty-free personal imports of medicines and food intended for special medical purposes in the treatment of rare diseases.
India’s oncology market is estimated to grow by ₹2.36 billion, at an annualized rate of 20%, from 2025 to 2030, according to Technavio, driven by rising cancer incidence and growing awareness about the disease.
Separately, under the indirect tax proposals for 2026–27, focused on enhancing “ease of living”, the Union Budget 2026-27 has cut the tariff on all dutiable goods imported for personal use by half—from 20% to 10%—according to details shared by the PIB.
The finance minister further outlined initiatives to boost traditional medicine infrastructure, including setting up three new All India Institutes of Ayurveda, upgrading AYUSH pharmacies and drug-testing laboratories to enhance skilled manpower, and expanding the “WHO Global Centre for Traditional Medicine” in Jamnagar.
Sitharaman also said the government plans to modernise existing institutions for allied health professionals and set up new ones across both the public and private sectors. The move is designed to create a pipeline of 1 lakh trained allied health professionals over the next five years in 10 identified fields, such as optometry, radiology, anaesthesia and applied psychology.
