Individuals facing costly import duties to bring in needed medications could soon be able apply for duty waivers as part of a simplified application process.
This development comes as Bodden West MP Chris Saunders, on Friday in Parliament, withdrew his motion to cut import duties on medicine, and medical and surgical supplies, after government agreed to make changes to how the public accesses related duty waivers.
Saunders, speaking on the motion, said following the intervention of Tourism Minister Kenneth Bryan, he was able to secure government support to move changes forward to help people struggling with high medical costs.
“Even though currently people do apply by writing letters to the Ministry of Finance to ask for this waiver, we’re actually going to create a form that will… make it much easier for them to apply… [W]e want to make the process… as easy as possible,” he said.
Premier Wayne Panton, speaking in Parliament Friday on the withdrawal of the motion, pointed out that medications such as those used for chemotherapy for cancer patients and other illnesses do carry significant costs, but they are typically subject to existing concessions given to the various hospitals administering the medications and treatments.
However, he said, in the case of those patients seeking to import their medication to benefit from lower prices, they would have to write a letter to seek a waiver from the Finance Ministry.
Though he said he has not personally dealt with a request like this, Panton noted it happens several times a year.
“I think it doesn’t happen with a great deal of frequency, but it happens with enough frequency that we certainly want to be in a position where people who have to deal with these scenarios of [needing] these specific types of expensive medication, have the ability to ask for a duty waiver,” he said.
He said the government is undertaking to ensure that rather than having people apply through a letter on their own initiative, that an application process is set up and people made aware of the potential to access the waiver.
“We want the message to be able to get out there and resonate with people in the country that this facility is available, and that there will be some process around it… so that they don’t have to go searching for it and they don’t have to think about it themselves while they’re facing these challenges,” he said.
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