Pharmas demand removal of non-tariff export barriers
KATHMANDU, JAN 07 -
Pharmaceutical entrepreneurs have urged the government to remove non-tariff barriers to exporting their products to India.
They said that additional duty and lengthy paperwork had been slowing exports of allopathic medicines and herbal products to the southern neighbour.
Nepal’s general medicinal products are of high quality and are competitively priced, but the trade barriers have hindered exports and even harmed growth of the local industry, they added.
They claimed that pharmaceutical factories were operating at 30-40 percent of capacity, and they could get a shot in the arm if exports could be boosted.
According to the Association of Pharmaceuti-cal Producers of Nepal (APPON), exporters have to pay additional duty besides going through lengthy procedures to register their products and get them certified by Indian authorities. APPON General Secretary Deepak Prasad Dahal said countervailing duty was levied on allopathic and ayurvedic medicines exported to India.
“After registering the pharmaceutical products with the Indian authorities, traders have to wait for at least another seven months to get them certified by labs in India,” he added.
According to Dahal, ayurvedic medicines too have to be put through the tedious process before they can be shipped to India. “However, herbs in raw and unprocessed form can be exported to India easily,” he added.
Entrepreneurs have also complained that Indian products are granted trouble-free entry into India while Nepali products do not enjoy the same privilege.
Criticising the government policy, APPON’s President Umesh Lal Shrestha said that Indian products which are banned in India were being registered without any hindrance in Nepal. He also demanded that the government restrict imports of general medicines that are being produced in Nepal.
As per an APPON study, Nepal is self-reliant in 77 types of general medicines. “However, the government is providing licences to sell products that could face duplication in the domestic market.”
Shrestha also urged the government to facilitate sales of Nepali products when supplying subsidised medicines in rural areas. “The government buys Rs 3 billion worth of medicines annually for distribution to the poor, and most of the procurement contracts go to foreign-based companies,” he added.
According to Shrestha, the bidding process for Nepali pharmaceuticals is too complicated compared to the conditions applied to foreign-based companies.
Meanwhile, the Depart-ment of Drug Administration said it had started work to restrict sales of foreign allopathic medicines which are being manufactured locally in a bid to protect domestic industry. Narayan Prasad Dhakal, drug administrator at the DDA, said they had started discussions with stakeholders. “We have been discussing whether to put these general medicines in the negative list or impose similar technical barriers in order to reduce their imports,” he added.
According to APPON, local products account for 44 percent of Nepal’s pharmaceutical market which is worth Rs 17 billion annually.
Source: The Kathmandu Post
