Reps urge FG to drop tariff on medicines

The House of Representatives, on Wednesday, called on the Federal Government to delist medicines from the list of items that will attract imposition of tariff.
The House said that the delisting should subsist until such a time local manufacturing would have reasonably guaranteed not only the quality but the quantum of medicines to be administered in the country.
This followed a motion by Rep. Obinna Onwubuariri (PDP-Imo), on the call on Federal Government to drop the 20 per cent tariff imposed on imported medicines.
Moving the motion, Onwubuariri said the Minister of Finance, Mrs Kemi Adeosun, had communicated the approval of the President on an import adjustment tax list wherein 20 per cent tax was imposed on medicines.
According to him, the medicines include imported paracetamol tablets and syrup, and chloroquine tablets syrup.
He said until this import list, Nigeria had a zero per cent duty on imported drugs as a result of the recommendation of an ECOWAS Committee on Health that member states impose zero per cent on imported drugs.
“This is given that the healthcare needs of the region cannot be adequately addressed by local manufacturing.”
He expressed concern that the situation that necessitated the ECOWAS recommendation prior to 2013 had not abated.
According to him, the re-introduction of duty and imposition of a whopping 20 per cent tax on imported medicines will aggravate the already deplorable condition of the nation’s healthcare delivery system and could lead to high death rates.
The motion was unanimously adopted by members when it was put to a voice vote by the Speaker, Mr Yakubu Dogara.
The House, therefore, mandated its Committee on Healthcare Services to ensure implementation and report back in four weeks for further legislative action.