Irked by the Union health ministry's recent decision to hike licence fees for drug wholesalers and retailers by ten times, a delegation of All India Organisation of Chemists and Druggists (AIOCD) led by its president J S Shinde and general secretary Suresh Gupta will soon meet senior officials in the CDSCO and will submit a memorandum, seeking a rollback of the hike in licence fees.

The DCGI had issued the draft order for the fee hike for pharmacies and for manufacturing companies for registration of domestically manufactured new products, registration for importing medicines (licence) and also for registering such imported pharmaceutical products and sought suggestions and comments from concerned stakeholders including druggist associations.

The draft order revised the licence fees from Rs.3250 to Rs 32,500 which will have severe financial implications for retailers, wholesalers engaged in pharmaceutical trade in the wake of rise in operational cost and cut throat competition. Retailers are required to obtain two licences. Hence the massive rise in licence fees will severely affect them. It will lead to closure of chemist shops in rural regions as most of them lack resources to pay the heavy licence fees for drug sale, said AIOCD president J S Shinde.

The AIOCD president said that retail chemists are facing tough challenges in running business due to rise in electricity bills, labour payments, rent of shops and other expenses. The licence fee hike will further burden them, he opined.

Given the circumstances, we have written to department of pharmaceuticals, Union ministry of health and welfare, Prime Minister's Office (PMO) urging them to withdraw the decision of ten-fold hike in licence fees, he said.

Replying to AIOCD letter, PMO said that the decision to hike licence fee will be taken after discussions with the representatives of various associations engaged in pharmaceutical trade including AIOCD, he informed.

Shinde said if the government will not rollback its decision to hike licence fees, AIOCD will be left with no option but to call a day-long bandh.