ISLAMABAD, Aug 2: The Pakistan Chemist and Druggists Association (PCDA) has asked the government to devise a mechanism for ensuring prompt withdrawal of stocks from the market before announcing the fresh list of GST-exempted life-saving medicines.

The PCDA vice-chairman, S. Nadeem Shami, while talking to Dawn, said the release of the list would create confusion in the market as many medicines that had recently been included in the fresh list had earlier been supplied to the market with 15 per cent general sales tax (GST) on them.

Pre-empting the situation, the association has already written letters to different pharmaceutical companies, asking them to take back their stocks they had supplied with the GST.

Mr Shami said the local pharmaceutical companies had assured them they would take back the stocks if issued 60 days before the announcement of the revised list prepared on the directives of President Musharraf.

He, however, said the multi-national companies (MNCs) had not given them the assurance that they would withdraw the stocks, leading to a situation that would create problems for them because a huge number of medicines produced by the MNCs were available in the market.

He said the pharmaceutical companies submitted GST — on the medicines sold — to the government, every 15 days. Therefore, a cushion was available with them to withdraw the medicines after the announcement of the list.

Meanwhile, Mohammad Hanif Abbasi, chairman, Chemist Association Punjab, and president of Markazi Anjuman-i-Tajaran Rawalpindi, when asked to comment, said the pharmaceutical companies should either withdraw the old stock or give some rebate on the medicines already supplied with GST on them.

He said they would meet with the senior officials of the health ministry on Wednesday and discuss the issue.

However, he expressed his satisfaction over the addition of more medicines to the list of life-saving drugs exempted from the tax.

He said, earlier, different potencies of similar compounds had not been included in the list, but now the anomaly had been removed.

Mr Abbasi, however, said instead of announcing the list of tax exempted drugs, it would be wise that the government withdrew the imposition of the 15 per cent tax since the issuance of the fresh list. It is expected that the government will be able to generate only Rs1.5 billion after the issuance of the fresh list.

The Central Board of Revenue chairman, Riaz Ahmed Malik, while making announcement of 15 per cent GST on medicines, had said, through the levy of the tax, the government would generate Rs4 to Rs5 billion, which would be reinvested in the health sector.

Mr Abbasi expressed his resentment over the proposed deregulation of the pharmaceutical industry, claiming that the MNCs were pushing the government to deregulate the drug sector on the grounds that they were heavily investing in research and development in Pakistan, but were forced to sell medicines on cheaper rates. Thus, they could not take share for research and development of medicine from Pakistan.