CLARIFICATION ON RETAIL SALE PRICE BASED ASSESSMENT OF EXCISE DUTY ON DRUGS AND MEDICINES - CBEC chooses PIB route

By Vijay Kumar

The PIB has issued a press release on the RSP based assessment for medicaments. The notification for this was issued on 8.1.2005 and on 22.2.2005, the Board has chosen to issue a release through the PIB to clarify the need for RSP based assessment. DDT had carried a story on 10.1.2005 on the subject. (DDT 28) and now after nearly a month and a half CBEC clarifies through PIB that everything is fine. CBEC has not chosen even its own website www.cbec.gov.in to give this clarification. This shows the scant respect the Board has for its own website. The PIB release says that it was decided to levy excise duty on drugs after giving an abatement of 35% from the declared retail price. The abatement of 35% takes into account 10% margin to the wholesaler, 20% margin to the retailer. What about the margin to the manufacturer? Is he supposed to be a charity organisation?