Sales tax on pharma raw materials to be slashed: Qadir Patel

ISLAMABAD: Minister for Health Abdul Qadir on Monday announced that sales tax on pharma raw materials is being slashed after the reservations, ARY News reported.

Talking to the media in Polyclinic Hospital, Qadir Patel said the issue of 17pc sales tax on pharma raw materials was raised with Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif.

The government has decided to reduce sales tax on the raw material to 1pc from 17 per cent.

Punjab province is facing a shortage of life-saving drugs with pharmaceutical manufacturers blaming sales tax on raw material behind the shortage.

According to details, only limited stock of more than 40 life-saving drugs dealing with fever, aches, mental stress, asthma, cancer, cardiac arrest, infection in lungs, diabetes, blood pressure, Hepatitis, and other diseases are available in the market.

The pharmaceutical manufacturers while sharing details of the shortage said that the import of raw materials needed for the manufacturing of these drugs has been halted after the imposition of sales tax on the raw material.

“The manufacturing cost of the life-saving drugs has increased after the sales tax,” they said and announced that the medicine could only be manufactured now after the reversal of the tax.