The Ministry of National Health Services (NHS) requested a reduction in the sales tax on domestically produced pharmaceutical items in a letter to Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Monday.
At a press conference, Qazi Mansoor Dilawar, president of the Pakistan Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Association (PPMA), said that the government has decreased the 17 percent sales tax to 1 percent.
“The sales tax ratio for finished goods and raw materials is 1 percent.” He said that companies will be permitted to open new letters of credit as of July 1, when the tax is repealed.
In a television interview, Abdul Qadir Patel, the minister for the NHS, said in a television interview that the previous administration’s 17 percent sales tax on pharmaceutical items caused a decline in the manufacturing of medications.
