Govt. hospitals worst hit by Bihar chemists' strike

By Our Staff Correspondent

PATNA, MAY 2. The indefinite strike by the chemists and druggists demanding withdrawal of the recently imposed turnover tax entered the sixth day today, making life miserable for the improvised strata of people in this equally fund starved State.

The indefinite strike, the longest in about two decades, is alleged to have affected medicare in government hospitals and dispensaries across the State with reports claiming that over three dozen patients had succumbed to their ailments for want of medicines, including life saving drugs.

The wholesale and retail traders had stopped supply of even life saving drugs to the government hospitals in a bid to intensify their agitation to press for implementation of the agreement reached about four months ago in which the government had assured to withdraw the one per cent TOT by April 2.

The situation is made critical by the deadlock between the government and the Bihar Chemists and Druggists Association (BCDA) with no signs of negotiations in sight between the two. The Government had imposed the TOT in July last in preparation for off setting the losses arising from the division of the State, which was eventually effected in November last.

The BCDA had been agitating over the government action and had also observed token strikes in the past maintaining that the increase in the taxes would affect sales and their profits. The one per cent TOT is applicable at four points, besides the eight per cent sales tax on medicines, which together compound for almost 12.5 per cent tax on pharmaceutical items.

At the same time the TOT brings the retail medicine stores under government control, which the drug stores apparently are trying to avoid and hence the stand off. They fear that this would allow for corrupt practices by the officials, while the government is upset that most of 20,000 add outlets kept themselves out of the preview of the tax net by concealing their actual sales.

The strike has exposed the health care in premier government hospitals where the common masses have to fend for themselves with no stock available even at the Patna Medical College Hospital. Surprisingly, while the government was preparing for the indefinite strike, it obviously had not made any arrangement to cope with the situation even at its own health centres.

Private nursing homes are better placed with the retail drug outlets clandestinely maintaining the required medical provision. This, undoubtedly, underscores the division in the BCDA, though its strike has obtained the moral support of other trading organisations.

Needless to say the government is trying to take advantage of the situation by prompting these retailers to procure medicines from other States. That could be one reason the government has not cracked down with the implementation of the Essential Commodities Maintenance Act (ESMA). The Government has given the District Magistrates power to invoke the provisions of the ESMA if it thought is necessary and arrest the retailers and forcibly open their shops and come to the rescue of the people in general.

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