City chemists not prepared for the new taxation system

With the implementation of Goods and Services Tax in India, chemists fear that shortage of availability of medicines because some traders in the supply chain are yet to comply with the norms of the new regime. A senior official of the All-India Organisation of Chemists and Druggists (AIOCD) said they are still not ready to tackle GST as old stocks are still lying in pharmacy stores.

AIOCD is likely to file a writ petition in high court on July 3 for the loss that they are going to face due to GST implementation. “The higher authorities of our association have decided to file a PIL in Bombay HC on July 3 regarding stock which are going to be charged more after GST,” said Nitin Maniyar.

Almost 20,000 drug distributors still do not have the GST compliant systems in place to handle the change. “Our association which represents over 8 lakh chemists has assured the government that the supply of drugs will remain uninterrupted,” said senior official.

The general secretary of AIOCD, Mumbai said all chemist across Maharashtra have stock lying for two months due to which all of them are going to face losses. “Earlier there was 5% tax on medicines now we have to pay 12% due to which there is a difference of 7%. We have to bear this additional cost due to this difference,” said Nitin Maniyar.

After the implementation of GST we have to divide the tax as per state and central norms and we are still updating the new software at all chemists’. “As per the new norms we have to show 6% state GST and 6% central GST. Many stockists and retail chains, especially those in small and rural regions, do not even have a GST number in place,” said Maniyar.