Apex Chamber of Commerce & Industry (Punjab) seeks reduction in import duty on life-saving devices

Ludhiana, January 7, 2017: P.D.Sharma, President of Apex Chamber of Commerce & Industry (Punjab) has written a letter to Union Finance Minister regarding budget proposal and requested to reduce import duty on life-saving devices.
The letter reads as under: “Blocked arteries have become very common. Usually Coronary Stents are used for their treatment. This is included in the National List of Essential Medicine : NLEM).
However, documents shared by Alliance of Doctors for Ethical Healthcare show that the prices of stents are massively inflated, in some cases by nearly five times.
According to information available the quotation for stents was given as Rs. 50000/- for hospital in Ludhiana. However, the printed maximum retail price (MRP) over two times higher at Rs. 1.15 lakh is mentioned. Similarly another stent from the same company with a price of Rs. 82000/- has an MRP of Rs. 1.4 lakh. Similarly there are many other glaring anomalies in this regard.
National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA) has been approached by the above mentioned Alliance of Doctors for Ethical Healthcare to cap the price of stents and announced the same.
You are requested to reduce import duty and other taxes on stents.
Senior citizens usually have serious eye diseases like Glaucoma (Kala Motia) and Cataract (White Motia). There are patent medicines for these diseases such as G. Aalphagan, Glaucoma Eye Drop etc. Unfortunately price of these medicines is shooting up. It is also worth mentioning that the quantity is also getting reduced.
You are requested to reduce the import duty and other taxes on these medicines and other medicines of common use of senior citizens.”