AMN /
The Communist Party of India has condemned the decision of the Government of India to withdraw the reduced custom duty on 74 drugs including some Life Saving Drugs imported from other countries. It demanded withdrawal of the increased tax immediately
The drugs include Cancer medicine, Chemo-therapy, Radio-therapy, Heart disease, Diabetics, Parkinson, HIV, Hepatitis B, Bone diseases and infections and other serious diseases. This is a shameful inhuman decision, which will hit the patients from poor families. The explanation that the tax increase should lead to start up programme, to make those medicines in India is meaningless.
The government should initiate process first to make the medicine available to people and then increase tax on import of such medicine, from abroad.
Government recent tweak in levies — removing customs duty waiver as well as imposing excise duty on certain lifesaving drugs including for cancer, HIV, haemophilia, diabetes and infections may result in price increases between 10-25% on both imported and indigenously-produced drugs, swelling treatment costs and restricting key drugs for patients.
Coming days before the budget, the move is “in contradiction of government’s efforts to improve healthcare” and better access, say experts, adding that surprisingly even those drugs part of the national list of essential medicines (NLEM) have not been spared.