Bangalore District Chemists and Druggists Association (BDCDA) has received an official note from Cipla Ltd. agreeing to increase the trade margins to all distributors and retailers with effect from September 20, 2013.

A communiqué from the company dated September 19, 2013 stated that it would offer 10 per cent trade margin to all its stockists and 20 per cent to the retailers for all its drugs coming under the National List of Essential Medicines (NLEM).

The Association has been insisting that companies should increase the trade margins from the current eight per cent to 10 per cent for distributors. The retail margin insisted was 20 per cent from the existing 16 per cent.

In its letter dated August 16, 2013, BDCDA had pressed for 10 and 20 per cent distributor and retail margin respectively. It had also and asked the company to provide the margins inclusive of excise duty and exclusive of VAT (value added tax).

Further, BDCDA has also circulated to the companies the Karnataka government order on the authorization of the gazette officers from the state drugs control department that would check on DPCO 2013 adherence. Under this,  pharma companies needed to provide the price list to both the state licensing authority and the pharmacy trade covering wholesalers and retailers wherever their  formulations were for sale, said V Hari Krishnan, president, BDCDA.