Rising Prices for Alcohol and Medications: How the New Excise Tax Could Impact Drug Costs

2023-10-05 07:30:13

This is due to rising prices for alcohol, but eventually the cost of even those drugs that do not contain alcohol will rise.

The Ministry of Finance decided that it was necessary to impose an excise tax on any ethyl alcohol produced in Russia. They don’t want to make exceptions for medical reasons. And they are already discussing this initiative with the Ministry of Health, at the same time solving the problem of how to prevent the rise in price of alcohol-containing medicines. However, pharmaceutical market expert Nikolai Bespalov believes that drug prices will still rise.

Moreover, he is sure that not only medicines that contain alcohol will become more expensive. The fact is that ethyl compounds are also needed for the production of certain medications. For example, the mass is moistened in alcohol when tablets are formed. Therefore, prices will change not only for drugs containing alcohol, but also for those that do not smell of ethyl.

– In some cases, price changes will be minimal, in others – quite serious. Everything will depend on what kind of excise taxes we are talking about, how significant they will be,” says Bespalov.

At the same time, he believes that consumers should not worry too much about medicines that have important social significance. The state can control their cost with subsidies. However, pharmacist Viktor Dmitriev doubts the advisability of such actions. Excise tax revenues that go to the treasury are unlikely to cover these government expenses. In addition, the introduction of the tax will create many problems for the people and for business.

▼ sources

Source: NSN, TASS

Photo source: Global Look Press Bulkin Sergey/global Look Press

*included by the Ministry of Justice of the Russian Federation in the list of individuals-foreign agents

1696496477
#Ministry #Health #Russians #warned #rise #price #medicines

Leave a Comment

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.