Medicines imported for personal use that were earlier exempt from customs duty , countervailing duty and special additional duty now attract GST. While life-saving medicines imported for personal use would continue to be exempt from basic customs duty, they are not exempt from IGST, according to Sandeep Chilana, partner, Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas.These medicines would attract either 5% or 12% IGST, he told ET. This is because 5% or 12% IGST would mean patients having to pay lakhs of rupees every month — money they don’t have, he said. These patients will now have to bear this tax,” a Sanofi Genzyme spokesperson told ET. “As the drugs used for the treatment of life-threatening diseases like Lysosomal Storage Disorders, rare cancers, etc.

Source: Economic Times August 04, 2017 18:28 UTC