Essential medicines to be available in pharmacies till August at pre-GST prices: Report

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New Delhi: As India made a smooth transition to a new era of single tax regime for goods and services with price cuts on key products, customers faced a slight hiccup due to confusion on taxes.

With every company making the required changes in their product pricing, pharmacies are waiting for new stocks to make the GST transition.

As per a report in the Times of India (TOI), patients will be able to buy essential drugs and medicines at the pre-GST MRP, and not at the increased prices, till new batches arrive and reach retail shelves.

This could take up to two months till the market inventory is exhausted.

The new stocks with revised MRPs are expected to hit the market from August, industry experts told TOI. Insulin and critical-care products for kidney ailments and cancer, as well as anti-retrovirals, whose prices have been revised downwards, may be among the first to be rolled out.

Medicines in the National List of Essential Medicines (NLEM), are taxed at 12% under GST, and insulin and critical-care products at 5%.

Furthermore, with the implementation of GST, the tax liability of companies will increase, which will lead to a marginal 2.29% spike in prices of NLEM drugs, as calculated by the drug price regulator, National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority. Many life-saving drugs are part of the NLEM, which comprises around 25-30% of the pharma retail market (by value), TOI reported.

The NPPA has also finalised post-GST ceiling prices of NLEM medicines, based on information received from companies, and prices were uploaded on its website late on June 30, the report said. Prices of approximately 78% of all actively-used and traded drugs in the country are going to remain unaffected post-GST, the NPPA said.