Reports of Medicine Price Hike Inaccurate, Says Health Ministry

The Press Information Bureau (PIB) in Delhi clarified on April 3 that there is going to be no major hike in medicine prices, and common people will be majorly unaffected by the price hike done by the government. The Press Information Bureau also said not to believe anything published on the internet.

Many media channels were claiming that the government was planning to increase the price of around 500 medicines by around 12%. Many well-known media channels supported the claim by saying the price change would come into effect on April 15. On the other hand, the Press Information Bureau, in their press release, called the claims “false, misleading, and malicious.”

The Press Information Bureau clarified that the price will hike on medicines, but all people will be unfazed. The National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA) will indeed revise ceiling prices for scheduled medicines annually based on the Wholesale Price Index (WPI), but it will not affect the customers at any point; the change is so minimal. 

The Press Information Bureau said the National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority’s (NPPA) increased PI for 2024 by a minimal 0.00551%, and there will be no change in ceiling prices for 782 medicines; for the other 54 medicines, the price change is like nothing, a one paisa (Rs. 0.01) increase.

The price will not affect it this year. Drugs are usually categorised into two terms: scheduled and non-scheduled. The National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA) usually regulates the price of scheduled drugs and considers it necessary to do so. On the other hand, the prices of non-scheduled medicines and drugs are not controlled by the NPPA, but still, the NPPA caps manufacturers of the medicines, so they cannot raise the medicine price by 10% per year.

Fake and misleading news affects people a lot. For example, if this news had not been called out as fake by The Press Information Bureau, it might have changed people’s sentiments about the government, and the general central elections are coming up next month, which would have been a disaster for the government.