Scientists criticise Union Budget for steep hike in customs duty on lab chemicals

Issue first flagged by senior principal scientist from Hyderabad-based CCMB Dr Santosh Chouhan

Hyderabad: Senior scientists involved in cutting-edge research in government- and private-run prestigious laboratories have criticised the Union Budget-2024 for introducing a sharp rise in customs duty from 10 to 150 per cent on laboratory chemicals that form an integral part of their research.

The issue was first flagged by senior principal scientist from Hyderabad-based Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB), Dr Santosh Chouhan, when he expressed his disbelief on X.

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“Please tell me this is a misprint so that I can delete this. Lab chemicals custom duty increased from 10 per cent to 150 per cent? How do we do research and whether funding agencies will compensate by reducing expectations or providing more funds?” he said.

Please tell me this is a misprint So that I will delete this. Lab chemicals custom duty increased from 10% to 150%? How we do research and whether funding agencies will compensate by reducing expectations or providing more funds? @serb @DBTIndia @ICMRDELHI pic.twitter.com/jFOkCTzwip

— Santosh Chauhan (@Chauhanlab_ILS) July 29, 2024

Dr Chouhan’s post attracted immediate attention, as top researchers from multiple research institutions started to oppose the move by highlighting its potential negative impact on research and development in India.

Dr Anurag Agrawal, former director of CSIR-Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology (IGIB) and dean of Ashoka University, on X said: “Hope to see rollback on this change. It will be extremely damaging to RD otherwise. The science departments should take the lead in getting this done”.

Prof Amit Sethi from IIT Bombay posted: “As a researcher in a top Indian public university, I attest that we need to be able to purchase equipment fast, hire talent at market rates, automate parts of proposal and report submission and get relaxation from import duties, tendering and Make in India.”

IIT Kanpur researcher Amitabha Bandhopadhyay, whose team developed an Indian ventilator during the Covid-19 pandemic, said: “How will you focus on research if we have to do firefighting all the time? How will we run any experiment now considering that prices of chemicals went up 2X?”

Commenting on the development, assistant professor from Biotech Research and Innovation Centre (BRIC), Denmark, Navneet A Vasistha said: “This is bizarre! Is someone producing them locally in India of equal purity?”