Budget 2026: Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has announced huge relief for cancer patients in the Union Budget 2026. He said that Basic Customs Duty (BCD) has been completely removed on 17 important medicines used in the treatment of cancer, which means now the government will not impose any additional tax on importing these medicines from abroad. This will bring down the price of these medicines significantly and patients will be able to get these life-saving medicines at cheap rates.
Treatment of a serious disease like cancer is very expensive. Many medicines come from abroad and due to earlier imposition of duty on them, their price increased further. The financial burden on families was enormous; many times people left treatment midway or had to take loans. This decision will directly benefit lakhs of cancer patients and their families. The main objective of the government is to make health services more accessible and affordable for every citizen, especially in diseases where timely treatment can save lives.
The government has not yet made public the complete list of the exact names of these 17 medicines. But these are mostly expensive and imported medicines which are used in the treatment of various types of cancer. These medicines are for targeted therapy, immunotherapy, chemotherapy or other advanced treatments. These help in many types of cancer. For example, these drugs can be used to treat the following types of cancer: breast cancer, lung cancer, blood cancer or leukemia, colorectal cancer, prostate cancer, ovarian cancer, pancreatic cancer, liver cancer, kidney cancer and others. These are only possible types of cancer, as these drugs can overlap with many cancers and work in a targeted manner. When the actual list comes, it will be more clear which medicines are included, but these are high-cost and important.
Apart from this, there is another good announcement in the budget. Duty on some items brought from abroad for personal use has been reduced from 20% to 10%. This will provide some additional relief to patients, especially when they order their own medicines. The Finance Minister also told that 7 more rare diseases are being included in this list. There will be complete exemption from import duty on personal import of medicines, drugs and special medical foods used for the treatment of these diseases. Very few people suffer from rare diseases, hence their medicines are very expensive and often come from abroad. With this exemption, the financial burden of such patients will be significantly reduced.
