PESHAWAR, Sept 13: The chemists are still charging the general sales tax on sale of drugs, even though the levy has been withdrawn by the government, doctors told Dawn on Friday.

“The government has withdrawn the GST on all forms of drugs but the chemists continue to include it in the price of medicines,” said a medical officer at the casualty ward of a city hospital.

The government imposed GST on all forms of drugs on March 20 but later exempted 256 drugs from the tax which had been classified as the life-saving ones. It had projected to collect a hefty sum from the levy and planned to spend it on the improvement of the state-owned health-care institutions.

However, the chemists bodies protested against the move and demanded of the government to do away with the tax, saying it would hit hard the 65,000 chemists’ shops across the country.

Succumbing to the tremendous public pressure, the government formed a committee comprising representatives of the ministry of health, commerce and industries and finance to review the decision and devise a rational drug price mechanism to solve the issue once and for all.

On Aug 22, Finance Minister Shaukat Aziz announced the withdrawal of GST on all sorts of medicines with immediate effect. The minister had also admitted that its imposition was a mistake.

The minister had also informed that three committees were working on a strategy to further slash down the prices of drugs.

The local doctors, however, argue that after the passage of 20 days, the government is yet to implement the withdrawal decision in letter and spirit.

The chemists have their own story. They say that they had paid the GST to the wholesalers and they were passing it on to the consumers. According to them, the wholesale outlets from where they had purchased the stock were unwilling to refund the GST to them. They (the retailers) had no other option but to charge the patients.

One of the chemists said that if they were compelled to sell the drugs without the GST, there would be a shortage of drugs which, he said, would cause more harm to the patients.

A relative of a patient at Lady Reading Hospital said that he bought an injection prescribed to his ailing father by the doctors at Rs6,665. The price of the injection was Rs5,765 but the chemist also charged the 15 per cent GST.

According to him, his father needed injection on emergency basis because he had suffered a heart attack but later the doctors informed him about the original price of the injection after the withdrawal of the GST.

He said the people or the patients cannot do anything because the chemists would simply refuse selling drugs to the patients, if they do not pay the GST. It is the responsibility of the government to ensure that the benefit of the tax withdrawal reaches the people.