The social media users have showered praises on the Narendra Modi led Union Government for its decision to waive off the import duty and GST on the medicines for a five-month-old girl.
Going into detail, a five-month-old girl Teera Kamat has been suffering from Spinal Muscular Atrophy (SMA).The disease is a Type 1 breakdown of the nerve cells.
The baby’s parents have shared the condition of their daughter with the Prime Minister in January this year.Given the cost of the medicines, her parents requested the Centre to waive off the import duty and GST on the medicines.
Teera’s parents claimed that medicines for the genetic root cause of spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) should be imported from the USA. They said the price of the medicines is 16 crores. With the addition of import duty and GST, the total cost goes to 18 crore.
The baby’s parents have managed to raise Rs 12 crore for the medicines through crowdfunding. They urged the government to withdraw import duty and GST on the medicines.
“The price tag of 16 crores is unaffordable even to some of the wealthy classes. For common, middle income households like ours, 1 crore is an amount we will never live to see after earning and paying taxes for a life time. All the government policies and programs have a specific BPL clause, where help is provided only to people who can prove they are poor.
When it comes to raising 16 crores,we are poor but there is no way we can prove this. Can we drop the BPL clause and make the assistance available to every Indian?” the Instagram post reads.Taking the high cost of the medicines into consideration, the union government has decided to exempt the customs duty for importing the life-saving drug.
