Call to withdraw GST on alternative medicines

KARACHI: The Pakistan Chemist and Druggist Association has called for abolishing GST on alternative medicines.

A delegation of the Pakistan Chemist and Druggist Association, led by Ghulam Hashim Noorani and Abdul Samad Badhani, met with Federation of Pakistan Chamber of Commerce and Industries (FPCCI) Senior Vice President Fayyaz Mugu and discussed the issues of alternative medicines. Expressing concerns about GST, they demanded the federation to play its role in abolishing GST on alternative medicines.

The delegation said that alternative, herbal and homeopathic medicines were mostly used by the middle class on which the Government of Pakistan has imposed taxes, including GST. This has made the medicines expensive by 20 to 25pc. Now these medicines are out of the reach of common man. With this move, not only the consumer will get expensive medicines but also importers, traders and retailers would also have to suffer and they would be forced to leave the business. As a result, the drug delivery system, spread across the length and breadth of the country, will be affected and it would not be possible to deliver drugs everywhere, they added. The Pakistan Chemist and Druggist Association demanded that the Government of Pakistan, if it cannot provide subsidies and concessions to pharmaceutical sector, should at least not make it a source of tax revenue and immediately amend the Finance Bill.