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What the new duties change, and for whom.
Following since August 5, 2026 · Updated September 2, 2026
New duties took effect this month. This story tracks what changed, who is exposed, and what is still unclear.
What Happened
Duties of 25 per cent were applied to a list of formulations.
Why It Matters
The duties touch a supply chain that several national health services buy from directly, so the cost lands well beyond the exporters named in the notification.
Key Players
The trade ministry that opened the review, the exporters' association that responded to it, and the two health services that buy the largest volumes.
What's Next
A consultation closes next month.
Why it happened
The measure followed a trade review opened last year.
What changes
Landed costs rise for a narrow band of exporters.
Who loses
Mid-sized generics manufacturers with thin margins.
Economic impact
Analysts put the exposure in the low hundreds of millions.
What we don't know
Whether the list expands, and whether there is retaliation.
What we checked
Verdicts are reached by an editor, never by a model. We can be wrong — the evidence is here so you can check.
- 1 Contradicted
- 1 Supported
Contradicted The measure will cost Indian exporters more than two billion dollars in its first year.
The sources we checked contradict this.
Roughly ten times the exposure the exporters' own council puts on the record, and the arithmetic behind it applies the duty to exports the notification does not cover. This is one of the few we can say is simply wrong.
Checked by Ines Marchetti
Claimed by An industry estimate circulated on 3 August on August 13, 2026
Contradicts
Our members' combined exposure on the notified lines is of the order of 240 million dollars in a full year. Figures an order of magnitude larger have been attributed to us and we do not recognise them.
Pharmaceutical Export Promotion Council statement, 5 August 2026Press releaseMedium credibilityPharmaceutical Export Promotion Council
Context
The two-billion figure appears to have been reached by applying the duty to all pharmaceutical exports rather than to the lines the notification names.
How the number was arrived at, which is worth more to a reader than knowing only that it is wrong.
The Financial Chronicle, 'Where the two-billion figure came from'News outletMedium credibilityThe Financial ChronicleArchived copy
Supported Duties of 25 per cent now apply to a defined list of finished formulations exported from India.
The sources we checked support this.
The notification says it plainly. The reason this is not strongly supported is the word 'defined': the schedule runs to 61 lines and excludes active ingredients, so a reader who takes this to mean pharmaceutical exports generally has taken it too far.
Checked by Ines Marchetti
Claimed by Directorate General of Foreign Trade on August 11, 2026
Partly supports
The Schedule as notified runs to 61 tariff lines, all of them finished formulations. Active pharmaceutical ingredients are not covered.
From an interested party, and it narrows the claim rather than confirming it.
Pharmaceutical Export Promotion Council statement, 5 August 2026Press releaseMedium credibilityPharmaceutical Export Promotion Council
Supports
An additional duty of 25 per cent ad valorem shall apply to the goods specified in the Schedule to this notification with effect from 1 August 2026.
Trade Notification 44/2026 — additional duty on formulationsGovernmentHigh credibilityDirectorate General of Foreign TradeArchived copy
Timeline
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