Delhi High Court: The Division Bench of Vipin Sanghi and Jasmeet Singh, JJ., dealt with a petition which prayed for waiver of import and other duties on Amphotericin B, which is a drug being used for treatment of Mucormycosis (Black Fungus).
Counsel for the respondent informed the Court that Import Duty payable on import of Amphotericin B was 27 % wheareas the counsel for the petitioner informed it to be 70 %. Counsel for the respondent however submitted that there is complete waiver of customs duty on life saving drugs imported for personal use via a notification and on instructions, Amphotericin B would be covered by the said notification.
The Court was of the view that the said drug is required to save lives of the people suffering from the disease which is inflicting thousands of people all over the country, and there is acute shortage of the same in the country, and that the Central Government should seriously consider waiver of complete Customs and other duties & levies on the import of the said drug by all, at least, for the period that the same is in short supply in India and is required to treat the disease, namely Mucormycosis (Black Fungus).
The Court directed that if any import is made by any person of the said medicine, the same may be cleared by accepting a bond (to the effect that in case the duty is payable and not waived, the same shall be paid) from the importer without actual payment of duties till a final decision on the said aspect is taken. The Court will hear the matter on 01-06-2021.
[Laieq Ahmad Siddiqui v. Govt. of NCT of Delhi, 2021 SCC OnLine Del 2986, decided on 27-05-2021]
Suchita Shukla, Editorial Assistant had put this report together
For the petitioner: Mr Rohit Sharma
For the respondent: Mr Rahul Mehra, Senior Advocate along with Mr Gautam Narayan, ASC & Mr Satyakam, ASC with Mr Aditya P. Khanna, Ms Dacchita Sahni, Ms Ritika Vohra and Mr Chaitanya Gosain, Advocates for the respondent/ GNCTD.
Mr Amit Mahajan, Mr Kirtiman Singh & Ms Nidhi Mohan Parashar, CGSCs for the respondent/ UOI.
Mr Ashish Mohan, Advocate for respondent No.3/ SGRH.
Mr Rajshekhar Rao, Senior Advocate (Amicus Curiae) along with Mr Anandh Venkataramani, Ms Mansi Sood, Ms Sonal Sarda and Mr Areeb Amanullah, Advocates.
Mr Krishnan Venugopal, Senior Advocate with Mr Manan Verma, Mr Aditya N Prasad, Mr Kaushik Mishra & Ms Anmol Srivastava, Advocates.