PESHAWAR, May 23: The Pakistan Chemists and Druggists Association (PCDA), NWFP chapter, will observe an indefinite strike from June 1 to force the government to withdraw the recently imposed general sales tax (GST) on drugs, chemists leaders told Dawn on Thursday.

“We are all set to start strike against the imposition of 15 per cent GST on drugs which came into effect on March 20, 2002. Earlier, we had postponed our protest programme because of the assurances given to us by Finance Minister Shaukat Aziz,” said Abdul Hadi Khan, senior vice-chairman of the PCDA, Peshawar district.

He said the minister had urged a PCDA delegation, which had called on him in Islamabad a month ago, to postpone their protest campaign till the presidential referendum, with the assurance that the GST on drugs would be withdrawn after the referendum. He lamented that the minister had not kept his words.

“We, the 65,000 chemists and their families, supported Gen Musharraf in referendum because we pinned great hopes on him that the general would have pity on the poor chemists and patients and withdraw the GST. Now, when he has won the referendum, we appeal to him to do away with the GST.”

PCDA President Arbab Javed Ahmad announced that the strike would continue from June 1 till the withdrawal of the tax. He added that in order to press the government hard, protest demonstrations would be held all over the country.

He warned of shutterdown and huger strikes if the government did not accept their demand, saying that as a last resort, the chemists would stop selling drugs to the people.

Mr Ahmad ridiculed the government for its argument that the tax had been imposed on the directives of the IMF. He said the government’s claim was wrong because IMF officials had clearly indicated a month ago in Islamabad that they had nothing to do with the imposition of the GST on medicines.

Another PCDA office-bearer alleged that the government was dancing to the tune of multinational pharmaceutical companies, which had raised the prices of their products without any justification.  

He said that about 630 local drug manufacturing firms were finding it extremely hard to compete with only 26 multinational companies due to what he called “the unethical promotional tactics adopted by the latter.”

He further alleged that the MNCs were in league with the officials of the federal health ministry and were fleecing the poor at its behest. The PCDA member remarked that the MNCs sold their products in the neighbouring India at 5,00-1,000 per cent lower prices than they did in Pakistan. It was the main reason that the drugs smuggled from India sold in Pakistan like hot cakes, he added.

The government has exempted 256 life-saving drugs from the tax, but the PCDA has been demanding that all drugs be exempted from the GST, arguing that there is no GST on drugs or food items in other countries of the world.

“We have already suggested to the government to impose the GST on luxury drugs and multivitamins, like the European countries have done,” said another PCDA leader.