Shaheer Ahmed
With inflation and heavy taxes, different industries have been affected. In reaction, they gave warned the government of the product shortage. With COVID rising again, the essential drugs may be out of stock. It is going to affect the patients who rely heavily on the drugs to survive. The Pakistan Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Association has requested the government to relax the taxes, otherwise, there would be a shortage of drugs.
Sales tax of Rs 48 billion has been collected as sales tax. There has been a 17 % sales tax on the import of raw materials which has led to an increase in the prices of medicines. The production cost has increased by 45 %. This is going to result in collapsing of the pharma industry by 25 %. PPMA has urged that the sales tax should be refunded. They have been suffering for the last six months, and the government isn’t facilitating in this regard.
PPMA’s Chairman Qazi Mansoor Dilawar said that they are facing difficulties. He said, “The prices of raw materials have more than tripled. Abolish taxes on our raw materials. Sales tax was imposed and promised to be refunded in this regard … both the governments have so far collected our refunds of Rs48 billion which the government is not ready to give back due to which they have no more resources to import raw materials.”
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Miftah Ismail, the Finance Minister has assured PPMA that the sales tax will be refunded. According to FBR, Rs 40 Million have already refunded last week.
We hope that this issue is resolved soon otherwise it can have a severe impact on the patients who are on life-saving drugs.
