Query: Whether corporate and industrial establishments are allowed to procure vaccine for

their employees?

Ans: Yes. The government has allowed private organizations to vaccinate their employees/
staff and procure vaccines towards this end.

As per the Liberalised and Accelerated Phase 3 Strategy of the National Covid-19 Vaccination
program, the Central Govt. has decided that vaccine manufacturers would supply 50% of their
monthly Central Drugs Laboratory (CDL) released doses to Govt. of India and would be free to
supply the remaining 50% doses to State Govts., private hospitals and in the open market. This
is known as “other than Govt. of India channel”.

Vaccine makers will have to transparently make an advance declaration of the price supply that
would be available in the open market before May, 1st, 2021. Based on this, industrial and
corporate establishments will be able to procure vaccination doses.

Query: Which age group can corporate/ industrial organizations immunize?

Ans: In its Phase-III, the National Vaccine Strategy aims at scaling up of vaccine coverage. For
this, the Central Govt. has allowed vaccination to everyone above the age of 18 from 1st May,
2021. The Government has stated that the vaccination undertaken by State Govts., private
hospitals and corporate/ industrial establishments shall be for all the adults, i.e., 18 and above.

Query: Can the corporate/ industrial establishments import vaccines?

Ans: The division of vaccine supply, i.e., 50% to Govt. of India and 50% to other than Govt. of
India channel (State Govt., private hospitals and open market) would be applicable uniformly
across for all vaccines manufactured in the country.

As for the import, the Government of India will allow the imported fully ready to use vaccines
to be entirely utilized in the other than Govt. of India channel. As per the import policy
applicable on vaccines issued by Directorate General of Health Services vide Circular No. X-
11026/07/2020/PRO 15.04.2021 (available at
https://cdsco.gov.in/opencms/export/sites/CDSCO_WEB/Pdf
documents/notice15april21.pdf), has specified that application for import shall be made by
foreign manufacturers through their Indian subsidiaries or authorized agents in India in case
they don’t have an Indian subsidiary.

As of now, the Govt. has not made any provision for Corporate entities to import the vaccine
directly/ on their own. Per the present scheme, corporate entities may acquire vaccines from
open market.
Since open market through which private organizations can procure vaccines, is covered within
other than Govt. of India channel, import of vaccine may be carried out by drug manufacturers
for supply in the open market, which may then e acquired by corporate establishments.

Query: Whether there is any waiver on the customs duty?

Ans: The government is going to waive 10 per cent customs duty levied on imported vaccines.
The government presently levies 10 per cent customs or import duty plus a 16.5 per cent I-GST
and social welfare surcharge on vaccines coming from overseas.

However, final decision of the Govt. is awaited.