March 29, 2002	Friday	Muharram 14, 1423

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ISLAMABAD, March 28: President Gen Pervez Musharraf has said that the government is reviewing the decision of imposing 15 per cent General Sales Tax on drugs.

“The president has told us that the government is constrained to levy the GST on medicines due to IMF pressure,” said Therik-i-Insaf chief Imran Khan.

Speaking at a news conference along with Meraj Mohammad Khan and Akbar S. Babar here on Thursday, he said that a 21-member delegation of his party held a three-hour meeting with the president and discussed various political and economic issues.

He said the President told him that the IMF was asking for imposition of the GST either on medicines or on ghee and that it was difficult for his government to plainly say ‘no’ to various Fund’s conditionalities.

“But then the president promised that he was reviewing the issue so as to provide any relief to the people,” he said, adding that the government itself was conscious of the fact that the increase in the prices of medicines would badly hit the common man.