KRA accused of exploiting the poor


Published on 10/11/2009

By David Ochami

Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) has been accused of causing a rise in the cost of essential drugs by reclassifying them as non-medicinal and thus imposing import and value-added tax on them.

Nyaribari Chache MP Robert Monda, who chairs Parliament’s Health Committee, has accused the tax collector of profiteering from the poor and weak.

"We cannot tax medicine when we want to save the poor."

The disclosures were made by the Kenya Association of Pharmaceutical Industry in a presentation to Parliament’s Health Committee, on Monday.

Meanwhile, most of Kenya’s 4,000 chemists and pharmacies dispense medicine, including prescription drugs, without authority from the Pharmacy and Poisons Board and validation of the National Quality and Control Laboratory.

Parliament wants Industrialisation Minister Henry Kosgey, to activate the Anti-Counterfeiting Act 2008 to stem the proliferation of dangerous/counterfeit medicine.

 

 

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