The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is reminding all pharmacies to implement the Value-Added Tax (VAT) exemption for diabetes, high cholesterol and hypertension medicines.
FDA Davao supervisor Deborah Legaspi said that the list of the registered drugs included in the VAT-exemption are already posted in the Department of Health (DOH) Drug Price Watch website.
She said that the list gets updated from time-to-time, as FDA is the mandated agency that monitors registration of all manufacturing and selling of medical products.
“FDA is requiring all drug pharmacies to post the transparent list of VAT-exempted meds in their stores that can conspicuously be seen by the patients or those who will buy these meds,” Legaspi said.
She also said that the drugstores should have already started implementing the exemption, even though the list was not yet posted.
“Technically, these drugstores should already implement it, because it is clear in the Joint Administrative Order that all diabetes, high cholesterol and hypertension medicines should be VAT-free starting January 1 of this year,” Legaspi said.
DOH 11 pharmaceuticals deputy head Rosemarie Balite said that the four agencies, namely the FDA, DOH, Department of Finance (DOF) and Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) are still finalizing the guidelines on how these lists will be posted.
“We are proposing that it would be displayed just like a menu form,” Balite said.
Legaspi said that any complaints of non-complying drugstores should be addressed to BIR.
She said that complainants should keep their receipts, to support their complaints.
