The Baylor Black Sea Foundation Will Be Able to Continue the National Medicine Donation Program
In 2017, the Baylor Black Sea Foundation, represented by NNDKP, facing the refusal of the Romanian fiscal bodies to authorize the import with the exemption from the payment of the value added tax and of the related custom duties applicable to the medicines necessary for the treatment of several serious conditions, including HIV/AIDS, anemia caused by chronical kidney diseases, certain types of cancer, to the issue to court in order to resolve this administrative-fiscal conflict that was jeopardizing the future of the entire donation program of the Foundation.
The Constanța Court of Appeals recently confirmed the correct decision of the Court annulling the decisions of the fiscal bodies refusing the import of medicines with the exemption from the payment of the value added tax, after the decision of the first level court had been previously reversed by the Court, pursuant to a final decision, whereby it had dismissed the complaint filed by the Foundation, who had challenged the refusal of the fiscal authorities to authorize the import of medicines under a regime allowing the exemption from the payment of custom duties.
“The court decided that we were allowed to benefit from the preferential conditions set forth under Romanian law for the import of critical necessity goods for persons with very limited financial means. The assistance provided by the NNDKP team made a significant difference. In this case, we are talking of a project initiated by the Baylor Black Sea Foundation in 2001, which was stopped in 2016, as a result of the refusal of the Galați General Regional Pubic Finance Department (“DGRFP Galați”) to authorize the import of certain medicines under a regime allowing the exemption from the payment of VAT and custom duties. This is a project that required a lot of effort and that ensured the donation of over 19 million dollars of medicines. The donations have been distributed to tens of medical institutions from the whole country. We made sure that medicines, such as antibiotics, antiviral drugs, treatments for cardiovascular conditions, which were vital to stopping the evolution of certain serious condition, reached the people who needed them. Approximately 50,000 persons benefited from our help. The medicines donated by Baylor were medicines that the hospitals either lacked, were in short supply or were inaccessible to patients because they were extremely expensive. When we realized that it would be impossible for us to continue the medicines donations project, we understood that we would no longer be able to provide for the benefit of the community all the services expected from us. Another big problem was that that we were no longer able to use all the means to which we had access to fight against infectious diseases and the associated complications until we obtained a favorable decision from the court in this respect. Once this situation is resolved, we hope that the projects in the field of health would be better received and supported by the authorities.” stated Ana-Maria Schweitzer, Executive Director of the Baylor Black Sea Foundation.
The NNDKP team that represented the client before the courts of administrative dispute resolution included Emil Bivolaru and Valeriu Mina, Partners in the Dispute Resolution Department, Alexandra Măruţoiu, Associate in the same department and Ancuţa Stroescu, Tax Manager and Simona Enescu, Senior Tax Manager.
“After two years of litigating before the Constanța courts, the Baylor Black Sea Foundation, represented by NNDKP, obtained the judicial validation of its efforts of importing medicines for patients in Romanian hospitals, under a regime allowing an exemption from the payment of the value added tax custom duties. It is a decision that makes us very happy and I want to congratulate the entire team for its continued effort on this project,” stated Valeriu Mina, NNDKP Partner.
