Indian Govt exempts GST of Rs 7 lakh to save baby’s life

After listening to the couple's concern, Tharoor wrote to Nirmala, asking for her help to exempt the parents from the GST on humanitarian grounds.

Hyderabad: A young couple got a Goods and Services Tax (GST) exemption worth Rs 7 lakh on cancer medication for their baby Niharika with the help of Congress MP, Shahi Tharoor and Finance Minister, Nirmala Sitharaman.

The former diplomat, on his Instagram, shared images of a letter he sent to Nirmala after he was approached by the parents of baby Niharika who has been diagnosed with High-Risk Neuroblastoma (Stage IV), a rare form of cancer for which the only treatment was an injection that costs Rs 65 lakh.

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He noted that each dose of the injection Dinutuximab Beta or Qarziba is currently being imported at a very expensive cost of Rs 10 lakh per vial.

“They had scrounged and saved and borrowed and crowd-funded to raise the money required but when they imported the drug, they need an additional 7 lakhs for GST that they could not afford,” he noted in an attached image.

After listening to the couple’s concern, Tharoor wrote to Nirmala, asking for her help to exempt the parents from the GST on humanitarian grounds.

Tharoor revealed that initially there was no response to his letter and the injection was stuck at the Mumbai airport since Customs would not release it without GST payment. He then called Nirmala and informed her that the baby was dependent on her exercising her authority immediately as the drug was perishable and would expire while in custody of Customs.

He further added that she was sympathetic and within half an hour her PS, Sernya Bhutia, informed Tharoor that she had spoken to the Chairman of the Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs. After this, Chairman Vivek Johari contacted him for more documentation, and an exemption was granted on Tuesday.