Acting upon the excise cut on all pharmaceutical products in the general budget, the National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA) has revised the equivalent maximum retail price of all scheduled formulation packs by close to five per cent.

As per the notification by the NPPA, the manufacturers have been asked to cut the prices (inclusive of excise duty and all taxes) by 4.58 per cent exactly. Thus for an existing equivalent MRP of Rs 100, the revised Equivalent MRP (inclusive of all taxes) shall be Rs 95.42, said a release, adding that reduction would take effect immediately.

"Consequent upon reduction in excise duty on drugs and pharmaceuticals from 16 per cent to 8 per cent, vide Ministry of Finance notification and also in the rate of abatement on drugs and pharmaceuticals from 42.5 per cent to 35.5 per cent vide Ministry of Finance, the prices of scheduled formulation packs have been revised downwards,'' the notification said.

"The reduction in prices of such scheduled packs shall however not apply on those categories of scheduled formulation packs where no excise duty has been actually paid to the Government and therefore no excise duty shall be chargeable in the MRP of these scheduled formulation packs,'' it said.