On Tuesday, February 9 the Central government announced that it has waived import duty and GST of INR 6 crores on medicines for a five-month-old girl suffering from a rare medical condition, said BJP leader Devendra Fadnavis.
Teera Kamat, admitted in Mumbai's suburban hospital, suffers from Spinal Muscular Atrophy (SMA) in which a complete breakdown of nerve cells results in zero control over muscle movement.
Her parents, Priyanka and Mihir Kamat, had written on social media about their child's fight with a debilitating ailment, leading to fund raising as well as appeals to the Union government to waive import duty and GST on medicines. Among the medicines is Zolgensma which targets the root cause of SMA and which has to be imported.
In their social media appeals, Teera's parents had said that 23 per cent import duty and 12 per cent GST added INR 6 crores to the cost of INR 16 crores that the treatment entails.
On February 1, former Maharashtra CM Fadnavis had written to the Centre requesting a waiver of import duty and GST.
In another letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi after the approval, Fadnavis said, "I would like to thank you from bottom of my heart for extremely humanitarian and sensitive approach and quick action for exempting customs duty for importing life-saving drug Zolgensma for five month old Teera Kamat from Mumbai."
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