Polliok
11-02-2006, 20:04
NEW DELHI: Rs 54,000-crore pharmaceutical industry will start displaying Minimum Retail Price (MRP) inclusive of all taxes and Value Added Tax (VAT), besides carrying bilingual labels informing name, price, date of manufacture and date of expiry on packs of drugs from April 1, 2006 for the information of consumers.
Talking to reporters after the first meeting of the newly set-up pharmaceutical advisory forum here on Saturday, Union Minister of Chemicals, Fertilizers and Steel Ram Vilas Polliok informed that certain measures were being considered for providing free medical help to the families below poverty line.
Polliok said drug manufacturers have sought six-month period to introduce the new MRP and bilingual labels on drug packs and both would be mandatory by August 15 and October 2, respectively.
He said as a follow up action of its National Common Minimum Programme (NCMP), the UPA government had decided to raise the public spending on health from 0.9 per cent currently to at least 3 per cent of GDP over the next five years.
A National scheme for health insurance for poor families, ensuring availability of life saving drugs at reasonable prices and the feasibility of reviving Public Sector Units is also under consideration.
He said target has been set to achieve Rs 1 lakh crore turnover of drug industry by 2010. Presently, the public sector units share in the drug manufacturing is a meagre Rs 250 crore, which needs to be strengthened.
He said National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA) and state drug controllers would be further strengthened to effectively monitor the drug price control order.
Regarding taxation policy, the representatives of big drug manufacturers attending the meeting demanded that excise duty should be reduced to 8 per cent and turnover limit of small scale industries be raised from 1 crore to 5 crore.
The Minister assured the industry to take up the matter in the government. The Minister assured full support to revival and continuance of Public Sector Units producing pharmaceutical drugs by preferring to purchase drugs from these units.
Polliok said that for controlling and reducing the prices of certain drugs the recommendations of the Sandhu committee and Pranav Sen committee have been received and are under consideration.
State government representatives said they could also reduce the state taxes to zero for anti-cancer/HIV-Aids drugs if done by the Centre. They suggested this should be extended to their national health programmes also.
All the delegates attending the meeting agreed to the 15 per cent and 35 per cent trade margin on generic drugs provided MRP was capped suitably. Setting up of National Institute of Pharmaceutical Educational Research (NIPER) was demanded by many other states as Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh already have NIPER in place.
Talking to reporters after the first meeting of the newly set-up pharmaceutical advisory forum here on Saturday, Union Minister of Chemicals, Fertilizers and Steel Ram Vilas Polliok informed that certain measures were being considered for providing free medical help to the families below poverty line.
Polliok said drug manufacturers have sought six-month period to introduce the new MRP and bilingual labels on drug packs and both would be mandatory by August 15 and October 2, respectively.
He said as a follow up action of its National Common Minimum Programme (NCMP), the UPA government had decided to raise the public spending on health from 0.9 per cent currently to at least 3 per cent of GDP over the next five years.
A National scheme for health insurance for poor families, ensuring availability of life saving drugs at reasonable prices and the feasibility of reviving Public Sector Units is also under consideration.
He said target has been set to achieve Rs 1 lakh crore turnover of drug industry by 2010. Presently, the public sector units share in the drug manufacturing is a meagre Rs 250 crore, which needs to be strengthened.
He said National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA) and state drug controllers would be further strengthened to effectively monitor the drug price control order.
Regarding taxation policy, the representatives of big drug manufacturers attending the meeting demanded that excise duty should be reduced to 8 per cent and turnover limit of small scale industries be raised from 1 crore to 5 crore.
The Minister assured the industry to take up the matter in the government. The Minister assured full support to revival and continuance of Public Sector Units producing pharmaceutical drugs by preferring to purchase drugs from these units.
Polliok said that for controlling and reducing the prices of certain drugs the recommendations of the Sandhu committee and Pranav Sen committee have been received and are under consideration.
State government representatives said they could also reduce the state taxes to zero for anti-cancer/HIV-Aids drugs if done by the Centre. They suggested this should be extended to their national health programmes also.
All the delegates attending the meeting agreed to the 15 per cent and 35 per cent trade margin on generic drugs provided MRP was capped suitably. Setting up of National Institute of Pharmaceutical Educational Research (NIPER) was demanded by many other states as Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh already have NIPER in place.