The Federation of Medical Representatives Association of India (FMRAI) will be finalizing a road map of their action plan for the year during their working committee meeting to be held in Cuttack on the 22nd and 23rd of this month. The road map will be based on the FMRAI conference that took place recently.

According to sources, the core issue that would be highlighted in the road map would be the issue of duty on medicines. They said that the organization had been continuously demanding the government to bring down the excise duty on MRP of non-essential medicines to 4 per cent and if possible not charge any excise duty on essential medicines.

But till now the government had not paid any heed to their demands. So the FMRAI would continue stressing on this issue for the benefit of the consumers. "What is happening is that due to the excise duty charged on the MRP the price of medicines is increasing and the consumer is left in lurch. So we are making this as a core part of our demands," said sources.

Yet another demand of theirs would be to allocate funds for the public sector pharmaceutical companies like IDPL and HAL, so that their activities can be revived. "Earlier these public sector companies were functioning effectively and were also providing medicines at a cheaper cost. But a few years back they became sick. So now we are demanding that these companies be revived. Moreover the revival of the public sector companies would also aid in self reliance rather than importing medicines," said sources.

The FMRAI will also be highlighting the issue of 8 hours for the medical sales representatives. To arrive at a mutual time frame the association will be holding talks with doctors association and State level chemists and druggist associations.