Business & Economy

Drug price control in a limbo 

What is India News Service, Wednesday, 5 January 2005, 2000 hrs IST

The Sandhu Committee, which was set up to examine the ambit of price control, failed to meet  its December 2004 deadline. 

With the Prime Minister's Office setting up a task force to study other options to make essential drugs available to the common man, the report might not come out in a hurry, sources in the ministry of chemicals and fertilisers indicated. 

"The government's policy over the past two decades has been to reduce the span of price control. The number of drugs under price control has come down from 347 in 1979 to 74," a source in the chemicals and fertilisers ministry said, indicating the likely course of action. 

The Sandhu Committee, meanwhile, is still in the process of discussing which of the price-control mechanisms for patented drugs in countries like France, Canada and Australia could be modified to suit Indian needs. 

In September 2004, a delegation of industry heavyweights representing companies like Ranbaxy, Wockhardt and Nicholas Piramal India had met the Prime Minister to apprise him of the situation, shortly after Ram Vilas Paswan, the Union minister for chemicals and fertilisers, threatened pharmaceutical companies with price curbs. This is reported to have been one of the triggers behind the setting up of the task force. 

"In a scenario where the government emphasis is on options other than price control, the Sandhu committee\92s recommendations may be rendered redundant. Moreover, with price control becoming a sensitive issue, the committee would rather wait and see what the task force has to say," the source said.

HPCL may set up refinery in Rajasthan: Rajasthan is likely to sign an agreement with Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited for setting up a 9 million metric tonne per annum capacity refinery in the state, as Punjab has refused to grant sales tax exemption to the Rs 10,000-crore Bathinda refinery project. 


BSE sets circuit breaker for Q1: The Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) has announced the index based market-wide circuit breaker for the quarter-- January 1 to March 31, 2005. 

Rupee flip flops: The rupee on Tuesday lost heavy ground against the US currency, as a second straight session dollar rally overseas fuelled heavy demand from corporates and importers, aborting an early sharp rally that took it to new five year high.

NCDEX hikes margin on sugar futures to 8.25%: With sugar prices hitting the roof over the last one month, the National Commodity & Derivatives Exchange Ltd (NCDEX) has decided to enhance the margin on open positions in all sugar futures contracts from 6.8 per cent to 8.25 per cent.


Is sugar price rise speculative?: Is the current sugar price surge largely speculative in nature? Going by daily trades recorded at the National Commodity & Derivatives Exchange Ltd (NCDEX), this does indeed seem to be the case. 

More banks plan cap expansion: Kolkata-based Allabahad Bank on Tuesday received consent of its shareholders to raise fresh funds for future expansion and consolidation plans through second public issue of Rs 100 crore by the book building route.

Furnaces await nod for power: With the state electricity department awaiting instructions from the electricity regulatory commission for cost sharing of infrastructure development from entrepreneurs, its expansion plans have been stalled for the moment.