RAWALPINDI, March 20: The Consumer Rights Commission of Pakistan (CRCP) has criticized the proposed imposition of general sales tax on medicines.

In a statement, the CRCP said: “The proposed imposition of GST will play havoc with the poor for whom proper health care is already unaffordable.”

It urged the government to refrain from reaping revenue at the cost of the citizens’ health.

Government estimates show that it will earn almost Rs3 billion by imposing GST on medicines. People presently spend around Rs25 billion on the purchase of medicines and this bill would further go up to Rs28 billion.

The CRCP’s secretary-general, Abrar Hafeez, while commenting on the proposed move, termed it as a bizarre venture because medicines all over the world were exempted from GST.

He reminded the finance minister, Shaukat Aziz, that he had pledged not to impose GST on unprocessed food items and medicines in the interest of poor consumers. He urged the government to stand by its promise of keeping the medicines out of GST net.

Representative groups of various medical and pharmaceutical industries, while denouncing the proposed imposition of the GST, said it would hurt the government’s commitment of reducing poverty in the country.

They assessed that the prices of drugs would go up by almost 15 per cent after tax was imposed. This, they said, would only add to the miseries of the poor, who already had very poor access to health care.

They feared that the bulk drug industry that was already in its infancy in the country would be irrevocably affected.