LAHORE, Aug 25: Despite the federal government’s announcement to withdraw general sales tax (GST) on medicines, the druggists and chemists continue to charge the same from the customers in the city.

Many medicines have ‘disappeared’ from the market and medical store owners say the same have been either withdrawn by the stockists or sent by them to the wholesale dealers.

Similar reports have been received from other cities and towns of the Punjab.

“Why should we not charge the sales tax (from the customer) when we have already paid it to the wholesale dealers,” a local druggist said here on Sunday.

He said that unless the present stocks of drugs in their stores exhausted they were not in a position to stop charging the tax.

He hoped that the wholesale dealers would not charge the GST on their fresh supplies to the druggists in accordance with the decision announced by the federal finance and health ministers on Thursday.

“Only then the retailers would be in a position not to charge the tax from their customers. Till then the people would have to pay the tax at the rate of 15 per cent of the actual cost of the medicines,” he added. —Reporter