The Union Budget 2026-27 has offered relief to cancer patients and their families struggling with soaring treatment costs.
In her budget speech, finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced the removal of basic customs duty on 17 cancer-related drugs and medicines.
The move is intended to reduce the prices of life-saving therapies and improve access to treatment, particularly for patients dependent on imported medicines.
While the announcement has been welcomed by cancer specialists as a step in the right direction, oncologists say the real impact will depend on which drugs are covered and whether the savings translate into affordability across the treatment cycle.
Medical practitioners say customs duty removal is among the best tools available to lower medicine prices, particularly for high-cost imported therapies.
Dr. Gautam Mukhopadhyay, a Kolkata-based surgical oncologist, called the decision encouraging but also mentioned the need for a detailed breakdown of the drugs included.
He noted that cancer treatment often extends over long periods, meaning that even incremental reductions in drug costs can make a difference, but only if the medicines are relevant to the country’s disease burden.
“India’s most common cancers include lung, breast and oral cancers, while cervical and breast cancers dominate among women, and lung, prostate and oral cancers among men. So, the policy’s success would hinge on whether the duty exemption prioritises medicines used in treating these high-incidence cancers”, he told The Telegraph Online.
“Without such targeting, the relief risks being uneven”, he warned.
Presenting the Budget in the Parliament, Sitharaman said the duty exemption would directly reduce the cost of critical oncology drugs used in a range of cancer treatments.
Imported cancer medicines typically attract basic customs duty, which adds significantly to their final retail price after distributor margins and taxes.
Mukhopadhyay also pointed out that while access to cancer drugs has improved in India over the years, affordability remains a challenge. Lowering drug prices alone, he said, would not resolve the economic strain on patients.
Hospitalisation costs, diagnostics, surgeries and supportive care often make up a substantial share of total expenditure, particularly in private healthcare settings.
“Drug price relief is important, but it does not address the full cost of cancer treatment,” he said.
Dr. Subir Ganguly, former head of the department of radiation oncology at the Medical College and Hospital, Calcutta, said the biggest gains from customs duty relief would likely be seen in patented and imported drugs, rather than generic medicines already produced domestically.
“The decision reflects the advantages of operating within a globalised pharmaceutical market”, he told The Telegraph Online.
In practical terms, he explained, reducing taxes on patented drugs, which are inherently expensive, offers genuine relief, whereas duty changes make little difference for generic medicines whose costs are already low.
Ganguly noted that many generic cancer drugs are either manufactured in India or produced using non-patented formulas, keeping prices relatively affordable. In contrast, several advanced cancer therapies, particularly immunotherapy drugs, remain under patent and must be imported. These medicines are among the most expensive components of cancer treatment and are often unavailable through domestic manufacturing.
For such therapies, he said, any reduction in import-related costs can ease the burden on patients across income groups.
“While the relief may not make these drugs inexpensive, it could marginally improve access for middle- and lower-income families who currently struggle to afford them. It will ease one of the most immediate financial pressures associated with cancer care” he added.
Alongside cancer drug exemptions, Sitharaman also announced customs duty relief for medicines used to treat seven additional rare diseases.
Under the proposal, personal imports of drugs, medicines and foods for special medical needs used in treating these conditions will be exempt from import duties.
The customs duty exemption on 17 cancer-related drugs is therefore being viewed as a step towards reducing catastrophic out-of-pocket expenditure, especially for families without a high insurance coverage.
The Union Budget also placed a renewed focus on mental healthcare, with the finance minister announcing the setting up of a second National Institute of Mental Health and Neuro Sciences (NIMHANS) in north India, alongside the upgradation of national mental health institutes in Ranchi and Tezpur into regional apex centres.
Presenting the Budget in Parliament, Sitharaman said the move was aimed at addressing gaps in mental healthcare access, particularly in emergencies that expose vulnerable families to sudden financial strain, and added that emergency and trauma care capacity in district hospitals would be expanded by 50%.
Psychotherapist Dr. Minu Budhia, founder of Caring Minds International, called it a hopeful step towards breaking long-standing stigma around mental illness. She said mental health has for decades been treated as a taboo, forcing families to hide treatment and suffer in silence, and described the Budget’s focus on mental healthcare as an important beginning towards ensuring accessible support for citizens across the country.