Govt approves hike in the prices of 18 drugs including Paracetamol products

The government has approved a hike in the prices of 18 drugs including Paracetamol products!

The approval was given in the Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) of the federal cabinet on Friday.

Finance Minister Ishaq Dar in the chair, approved the recommendation of the Drug Pricing Committee for increasing rates of Paracetamol products and the fixed price of Paracetamol Plain Tablet 500 mg at Rs 02.67 and Paracetamol Extra Tablet 500 mg at Rs 3.32.

The ECC also allowed a reduction in the prices of 20 drugs.

Federal Minister for Commerce Syed Naveed Qamar, Federal Minister for Power Khurram Dastgir Khan, Minister of State for Finance and Revenue Dr Aisha Ghous Pasha, SAPMs Tariq Bajwa, Tariq Mehmood Pasha, Dr Muhammad Jehanzeb Khan, Chairman SECP, Federal Secretaries and other senior officers were in attendance at the meeting.

The meeting gave its approval to implement the preconditions stated by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in true letter and spirit.

The ECP also approved the Revised Circular Debt Management Plan for the power sector.

Furthermore, ECC also approved the proposal to recover Rs. 76 billion while exempting non-ToU domestic consumers having consumption of fewer than 300 units and allowed to impose an additional surcharge of Rs. 1 per unit for FY 2023-24 to recover additional markup charges of PHL loans not covered through the already applicable FC surcharge.

The above surcharges will be applicable to K-Electric consumers to maintain uniform tariffs across the country.

Meanwhile, the ECC meeting deferred PHL’s principal instalments payable in respect of Rs283.287 billion for a period of two years.

ECC considered and approved the proposals contained in another summary of the Ministry of Energy (Power Division) regarding the recovery of staggered Fuel Charges Adjustment applicable for the months of August and September 2022.

The ECC also deferred the electricity bills for the month of September 2022 for commercial consumers in the flood-affected areas till the next billing cycle and waived off electricity bills for the months of August and September 2022 for the non-ToU domestic consumers having less than 300-unit consumption.

An additional supplementary grant of Rs. 10.34 billion to cover the waiver of electricity bills in flood-affected areas, was also approved by the ECC.

Furthermore, the ECC considered and approved in principle a summary of the Finance Division on the Kamyab Pakistan Program.

The ECC also considered a summary of the Ministry of Energy (Petroleum Division) and granted approval for the declaration of commerciality (DOC), Field Development Plan (FDP), and Development and Production lease (D&PL) for the period of five years.

The ECC also approved in principle a technical supplementary grant of Rs. 450 million in favour of the Ministry of Defence.