Date:02/03/2005 URL: http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/2005/03/02/stories/2005030202850300.htm

Back Drug prices will rise

Mr Rajiv Gulati, MD, Eli Lilly & Co (India)

"We believe that only a 40 per cent abatement while charging excise duty calculated on MRP would lead to increase in prices of drugs since the industry will need to recover the additional excise that has become payable under the scheme.

A simultaneous reduction in excise from 16 per cent to 8 per cent would have mitigated this increase and would have benefited the consumers, industry as well as the Government.

Extending the scope of tax exemption up to 150 per cent on in-house R&D activities should become a permanent feature in the new policy that the Government is planning to announce in the post-patent era."