Uniform MRP in pharma sector mooted

The Indian pharmaceutical industry may undergo a change if the ministry of chemicals’ proposal to have a uniform maximum retail Price (...

The Indian pharmaceutical industry may undergo a change if the ministry of chemicals’ proposal to have a uniform maximum retail Price (MRP) across all states is implemented.

The move may even make select few medicines more reasonable for consumers because of uniformity in sales tax and other taxes.

Chemicals Minister Ram Vilas Paswan is also understood to be for a move where medicines will also not display price on the packing as ‘retail price not to exceed — local taxes extra’ but will instead display ‘inclusive of all taxes’ for all medicines. The ministry is of the view that the system causes a lot of inconvenience to customers and more and more unpleasant disputes and complaints to consumer organisations and courts.

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Paswan has called for a meeting with all the state finance and health ministers to take up the issue. The meeting, earlier scheduled for the last week of July has now been postponed and will now be held over the next few days.

If implemented, the uniform MRP prices will further call for all states agreeing to avoid additional local taxes that are currently levied on medicines. The industry too is optimistic that the move can actually check the price variance across states.

‘‘It’s a great step, it will help in checking the undue margins that are charged by the retailers over and above the MRP. We hope it will be implemented by all states in the same spirit in which the minister has set it out to be. It’s indeed a patient friendly step,’’ said Nicholas Piramal president, Harrinder Sikka.

While welcoming the proposed move by the minister, ND Rajpal, resident director Alembic Limited said, ‘‘It will end the uncertainty of the exact retail price to be paid by the consumer and will also bring in much more clarity in pricing’’.

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The ministry is of the opinion that in order to make the prices of medicine as inclusive of all taxes, so as to be uniform and certain throughout the country, a consensus needs to be arrived at among all the states to levy uniform rate of sales taxes and to exempt medicines from all other taxes including those levied by local authorities.