The Malaysian Pharmaceutical Society (MPS) said the GST zero rate should be applied to all medicines for treatment and therapy purposes, and not luxurious items.

Its president Nancy Ho said that the society’s main concern is with the treatment-related medications only and not luxurious items such as vitamins and supplements.

“We are not asking for it to be across the board,” Ho told Malaysiakini today.

She explained that the national essential drug list (NEDL) was not sufficient as many medications outside of the list are for treatment and therapy.

As such, MPS wants the list to be expanded to cover all scheduled poisons list under Groups B and C.

On the medicines under Groups B and C, Ho said they are necessary for the sick.

“We want these medicines to be zero-rated as many sick people depend on them.

“We are not saying that there should be no GST. We understand that the government needs to impose it, like other countries have,” she added.

Health Minister Dr S Subramaniam yesterday turned down the proposal by MPS to categorise all medicines as zero-rated items under the GST.

“100 percent? No,” said Subramaniam ( right ) in a press conference.

However, the minister said that this was not a long-term policy for the government and the zero-rated items list can be revised in the future if necessary.

According to Subramaniam, the government had identified the essential drugs by approving 320 chemical compounds as zero-rated items under the GST, which translates into about 4,200 brands of medicines.

MPS is collecting signatures for a petition to appeal to the government for medicines for treatment and therapy purposes to be zero-rated under the GST.

Ho in a statement on Monday said that the government should not tax somebody for “being sick or for needing to take medicines”.