Andhra Pradesh Government has declared the pharmaceutical industry in the state to be a public utility service. This will be for a period of six months from March 23.

With this move, the government will be empowered to ban all strikes in the pharmaceutical and drug industry, according to a state government official.

This decision was taken presumably to avoid any strikes in the pharmaceutical industry in the wake of implementation of VAT regime from April 1. Incidentally Andhra Pradesh is the only state in the South, which will implement the VAT regime from April 1. The entire business community including the drugs and pharmaceuticals is opposed to the implementation of VAT in a hurry by the State Government.