It’s a very heart touching story wherein PM Narendra Modi-led Central government has shown a big heart for 5-month-old girl suffering from rare medical condition. Modi government has waived import duty and GST of Rs 6 crore on medicines for a five-month-old girl suffering from a rare medical condition, Spinal Muscular Atrophy.
5-month-old girl, Teera Kamat, admitted in a suburban hospital, suffers from Spinal Muscular Atrophy, a very rare medical condition that often does not let children live beyond 5 months of age and her condition requires a lot of money for the treatment. 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 Rs 6 crore to the cost of Rs 16 crore that the treatment entails. Former Maharashtra CM and popular BJP leader Devendra Fadnavis, on February 1, had written to the Centre requesting a waiver of import duty and GST. On Wednesday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in a humanitarian move, decided to waive off Rs 6 crore as a GST amount against Rs 16 crore of imported medicines that are required to treat Teera.
“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,” Devendra Fadnavis said in a letter to the Prime Minister’s Office on Tuesday. Devendra Fadnavis has played really a big role in the entire process of waiving Rs 6 crore for the little girl Teera Kamat.
