NPPA directs pharma companies to pass on lower excise duty benefit

The excise duty has been reduced to 6% from 6.18%

Medicine prices are set to become cheaper with drug pricing regulator NPPA directing drug makers to pass on benefits of lower excise duty to consumers.

The government has exempted drugs and pharmaceuticals from the the levy of Education Cess and Secondary and Higher Education Cess, resulting into reduction of excise duty from 6.18% to 6%, National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA) said in notification.

In exercise of the powers conferred on it by Drugs (Prices Control) Order, 2013, the NPPA "directs all the manufacturers to ensure to revise their Maximum Retail price (MRP), inclusive of excise duty and all taxes, of all formulation packs downward, pursuant to aforesaid notifications dated March 1, 2015," it added.

The above reduction in the MRP shall take effect immediately, NPPA said.

"However, where no excise duty has been actually paid/ payable to the government and no excise duty is chargeable in the MRP of such formulation packs, the reduction in prices of those formulation packs may not apply to the categories of concerned formulation packs," it added.

Established in 1997, NPPA has been entrusted with the task of fixation/revision of prices of pharmaceutical products (bulk drugs and formulations), enforcement of provisions of the Drugs (Prices Control) Order and monitoring of the prices of controlled and decontrolled drugs in the country.