When Shanta Joshi stopped by her neighbourhood drugstore this week to buy her monthly quota of diabetes medicine, she was shocked by the sharp rise in prices over her previous purchase a month ago. She was told that the drugs were now being sold at the maximum retail price (MRP) inclusive of all taxes, against the earlier practice of selling at the retail price plus local taxes.

With pharmaceutical companies now beginning to print uniform MRP on all their products distributed across the country, consumers in Maharashtra are dishing out extra money for some vital medicine for ailments like diabetes and high blood pressure.

In the earlier regime, drugs were sold as per the printed retail price plus local taxes, added extra by the retailer. The levy included various duties like central and state sales tax and the octroi levied by the municipal authority, which vary both within and outside the state.

“Averaging out the different tax rates in different states for a nationally uniform MRP can mean a rise in prices by 3-4 per cent, especially in those states where tax rates are low,” points out Tushar Changedia, a chemist. “But many companies have hiked their prices way beyond that.”

When The Indian Express compared four fast-moving drugs manufactured by leading pharma companies with respect to their retail price and the newly introduced MRP, it found that barring exceptions like Ranbaxy products, most medicines cost more by 3 to 20 per cent.

In the case of Gujarat-based pharmaceutical company Torrent, for example, the price of Betacard 50 mg (meant for high blood pressure) has risen from Rs 33.90 to 40.70, or by 20 per cent. Other Torrent products that showed a sharp upward movement were Dilzem SR 90 (11 per cent), and Nikoran 5 mg (9 per cent).

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