| Date: |
01-12-2015 |
| Subject: |
Rahul asks govt to cut import duty on equipment for visually challenged |
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NEW DELHI: Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi has urged the commerce ministry to slash the import duty on specialized equipment for visually-challenged persons.
"The reduction of custom duty on these items will help visually-impaired students to get educated and empowered," Rahul wrote to minister for commerce and industry Nirmala Sitharaman on Monday.
The plea concerns import duties on Braille typewriters and Braille paper which a girl student from Mount Carmel College in Bengaluru dubbed a stumbling block in her objective of seeking good education and a career of her choice.
Chandana Chandrasekhar met Rahul during his visit to the college last week and narrated the roadblocks she was facing as a visually-challenged commerce student. She followed it up with an email to the Congress leader, listing out how import duties were hampering the growth of persons with impairments.
Calling them a policy change of the present government, she wrote, "Earlier, all imports of specialized equipment like Brailles, Braille paper, embossers etc used to be exempt from customs duties. These devices are absolutely essential for tactile literacy, education, independence and empowerment. The duties have now become prohibitive."
She argued that there was no scope of misuse of these specialized items if the duties were abolished. "I would be grateful if you could highlight this issue and have these detrimental policies reversed. This customs duty policy affects all categories of people with impairments," she wrote.
Rahul has sent the request to the central government. "I would be grateful if I am kept informed about the action taken in this regard," he wrote to the minister.
Source : timesofindia.indiatimes.com
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