Chemicals and Fertiliser Minister Ram Vilas Paswan said on Thursday that the Union government will introduce maximum retail price-based pricing regime for medicines before the beginning of Parliament session on June 28 as part of its strategy to ensure availability and uniform prices to consumers.
Emphasising that there should be transparency in the pricing mechanism and the consumers must know what is he paying for, Paswan said he had asked the ministry to work out a strategy for evolving such a mechanism.
Currently, while central excise is included in prices of medicines, state taxes like octroi and sales taxes are not included.
He said though monitoring in drugs and pharmaceuticals sector was conducted in the country, there was no proper enforcement and he had instructed the officers to look into the issue.
Paswan said he himself had identified some drugs where prices were not found to be in tandem with the prescribed prices and asked the ministry to carry out an investigation.
"Life saving drugs should be available and at cheap prices to the consumers," he added.