At a time when the world is struggling to get ventilators to treat Covid-19 patients, 200 such equipment are lying at chennai port but they are 'second-hand' or 'used' ones and come under the 'hazardous' category. Import of such used equipment is prohibited under hazardous waste management rules of the Ministry of Environment and Forest.
Chennai-based company Skylark office Machines imported these ventilators in november 2018 from a US-based firm, according to sources. Meanwhile the customs authorities confiscated the consignment and imposed penalty on it. But, the importer approached the Customs, Excise and service Tax Appellate Tribunal (CESTAT), which set aside the penalties but, however, asked the company to re-export the goods back to the US.
Things took a turn as the central government banned exports of all kinds of ventilators during the last week of march amid the coronavirus outbreak.After this decision, it was impossible for the company to re-export the consignment. The firm sent a communication to the chennai office of the Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) seeking clearance of the consignment as a "special case" to enable use of those ventilators at government medical institution, tamilnadu, for tackling the Covid-19 outbreak.
According to the communication of the company, dated march 31, "We appeal to you that the policy condition may be relaxed to cover clearance of these goods already imported by us as a very special case to enable us to supply to government of tamil Nadu through tamilnadu Medical services Corporation Ltd (a fully-owned tamil Nadu government company) for use in the government medical institution in tamilnadu for tackling Covid-19 patients". Some of the major suppliers in the country have stated that they have acute shortage of ventilators amid the increasing demand worldwide due to the coronavirus outbreak.
