Centre waives tax, import duty on infant's imported medicines

The Union government has waivedimport duty and GST of Rs 6 crore on medicines for a five-month-old girl suffering from a rare medical condition, BJPleader Devendra Fadnavis said on Tuesday.

Teera Kamat, admitted in a suburban hospital, suffersfrom Spinal Muscular Atrophy in which a complete breakdown ofnerve cells results in zero control over muscle movement.

Her parents, Priyanka and Mihir Kamat, had written onsocial media about their child's fight with a debilitatingailment, leading to fund raising as well as appeals to theUnion government to waive import duty and GST on medicines.

Among the medicines is Zolgensma which targets theroot cause of SMA and which has to be imported.

In their social media appeals, Teera's parents hadsaid that 23 per cent import duty and 12 per cent GST added Rs6 crore to the cost of Rs 16 crore that the treatment entails.

Fadnavis, on February 1, had written to the Centrerequesting a waiver of import duty and GST.

''I would like to thank you from bottom of my heart forextremely humanitarian and sensitive approach and quick actionfor exempting customs duty for importing life saving drugZolgensma for five month old Teera Kamat from Mumbai,''Fadnavis said in a letter to the Prime Minister's Office onTuesday.