Plan to raise oxygen supply in the works | Economic Times

The government is considering allowing duty free import of components used in the manufacture of oxygen concentrators and including concentrators and oxygen delivery related equipment in existing production-linked incentive scheme for medical devices, as part of its strategy to ramp up scarce medical oxygen supply in the country.This comes after the industry associations had sought more sops to overcome India’s import dependency. “Duty on components and raw materials or capital equipment to produce oxygen related medical equipment can also be reduced to zero,” said another official.Need to Rationalise Device’s PriceThe official added that for certain oxygen related medical equipment, the duties are already reduced to zero till July.The plan, that is being worked out between the Prime Minister’s Office, Niti Aayog and the the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT), also focuses on demand aggregation of zeolite which is used in Pressure Swing Adsorption (PSA) plants to generate medical oxygen. 82757398“Deliberations are on and the PMO has directed that a plan be drawn up to reduce any oxygen shortage in the country,” said an official, adding that the government may allow import of zeolite to an aluminium public sector undertaking for the time being. Zeolite is used in oxygen concentrators to absorb nitrogen.Some other measures that are being considered are market retail price or MRP labelling and price rationalisation of oxygen concentrators which are currently being sold at exorbitant prices.In addition to defining a clear regulatory framework for oxygen concentrators and capping their trade margins, the plan also includes making publicly accessible the technologies of the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research and Defence Research Development Organisation for all medical oxygen and hospital related equipment to encourage domestic companies to invest in this sector.Oxygen Output IncreasedThe strategy comes amid the country witnessing oxygen shortage due to the raging Covid-19 pandemic. Steel plants are manufacturing medical oxygen, railways has delivered more than 11,000 metric tonne of liquid medical oxygen (LMO) in nearly 675 tankers to various states across the country since April 19 and India has already received oxygen plants, ventilators, oxygen concentrators, cylinders, and LMO from other countries. Nevertheless, shortages persist, particularly at the last-mile delivery.The commerce and industry ministry has said that that oxygen production has increased to 9,446 metric tonne (mt) per day in May 2021 from 5,700 mt daily in August 2020. Production capacity has gone up to to 7,314 mt per day, with capacity utilisation shooting up from 84% to 129% during this period.