by Irosha Weththasingha
Despite the recomendations made by the State Pharmaceuticles Corporation (SPC) saying that vitamins should be excluded from GST the treasury had catagorised vitamins separately and had imposed GST on them, SPC Chairman Prof. Colvin Guneratne said yesterday. He also warned that unscrupulous people will try to take advantage of the GST imposed upon vitamins to sell them at exorbitant prices.

The treasury revised a earlier decision to exclude vitamins from GST last month. Earlier vitamins were categorized under drugs and excluded from GST. From last month 12.5% GST was imposed on vitamins after being catagorised separately. Imposition of this tax will result in price increases of over hundred categories of vitamins in the forms of syrups, capsules and tablets, most of which are imported.

"This is a decision taken by the treasury and the SPC has no option but to act according to it" Prof. Guneratne said. "The public has no way of checking whether the price has been raised by the proper amount or not, so it will provide an opportunity for people to sell vitamins at the price they want" he said.

"Vitamins are prescribed by doctors for various illnesses such as malnutrition which affects the lower socio economic part of the society" he said pointing out that a increase in price would affect them badly. "But the treasury had opted to categorize it separately and has imposed the tax" he added. It was not clear under what category vitamins were included, sources said that it could probably be under nutritional supplements.

Several pharmacists expressed their views that vitamins should also come under drugs and therefore excluded from GST. "Some drugs prescribed by doctors for heart patients to lower the Cholesterol levels are being categorized under food supplement and charged GST" one pharmacist said pointing out that this is unfair. They were of the view that as the doctors prescribe vitamins for many ailments the imposition of GST on them will hit the public hard. "Vitamins are more often prescribed for low income people who now have to incur the skyrocketing drug prices even without the tax ,plus the additional 12.5% on vitamins" they pointed out.

When contacted by us the sources in the fair trading commission said that vitamins don’t come under the commission for pricing because they are not price controlled, making it impossible for them to say whether the prices of vitamins have gone up recently.

Several pharmacies we contacted said that the prices of vitamins have indeed gone up following the imposition of GST, however refrained from disclosing the amount by which they have gone up.

The Marketing Manager of Union Chemists (Pvt.) Ltd. Mr.Mervyn Burrous said that not only the prices of vitamins but the prices of almost every drug has gone up following the recent rupee devaluations. "For example the price of a drug given for Japanese Encephalitis has gone up from Rs.200 to Rs.950" he pointed out.