VietNamNet Bridge – The General Department of Customs (GDC) has announced that it will take drastic measures to control the sale prices of imports. Especially, it will buy information about products’ prices from foreign manufacturers for reference. However, experts say this will not be an easy task.

 
According to Dau tu, earlier last week, the prices of several imported medicine products, such as Omega – 3 1000 mg, Kidmega, Envision, Berocca Eff, Canesten soared by 11-13 percent. Meanwhile, Tien phong reported that in late March, Le H, 31, a patient, purchased a bottle of Polydexa used to treat ear infections manufactured by French Bouchara Reccordati from a pharmacy store on Nguyen Tri Phuong street in district 5 in HCM City at 65,000 dong. However, just several days later, when H returned to purchase the same product, he was told that he had to pay 75,000 dong.

 

The Pharmacy Law released in 2005 stipulates that manufacturers and importers must declare the medicine prices before putting the products into circulation. When they want to change the prices, they must declare the new prices with state management agencies. The sale prices of medicine products in Vietnam must not be higher than the prices of the same kinds in other regional countries that  similar economic conditions to Vietnam. However, despite the law, drug stores still have been inflating the prices of their products.

 

Since the beginning of March, despite the Ministry of Finance asking local authorities to strictly supervise prices, the prices of imported formulas for children under six years old, such as Abbott, Friso and Wakodo, have increased by 12-18 percent, .

 

Especially, the General Department of Customs has tried to strengthen the control over the prices of imported formulas by putting dairy materials and finished dairy products into the list of key products subject to strict price control measures. The department has been collecting information about all kinds of formulas to built up a formula price frame. However, several formula importers  have still been spontaneously raising prices.

 

When asked how drug stores are still spontaneously raise medicine prices spontaneously when there is a council in charge of verifying and approving registered sale prices, Nguyen Tien Thoa, Director of the Price Control Management Department under the Ministry of Finance said that supervision it the main duty of the Ministry of Health’s Drug Management Department.

 

A representative from the Drug Management Department admitted that the prices of many kinds of medicine are unreasonably high, but the sale prices are still lower than the registered price levels. This has been attributed to the fact that the drug price bids have been carried out at different hospitals in different localities under the supervision of hundreds of bidding councils. Meanwhile, the bidding law does not have detailed provisions on medicine bidding.

 

Thoa also thinks that the provisions stipulated in the Bidding Law are out of date and they need amending.

 

The Hanoi Market Control Sub-department said that in order to control the sale prices of import products and avoid tax frauds, tax agencies and post-clearance agencies must have information about actual import prices.

 

The General Department of Customs has announced a series of measures to avoid losses in tax collection. Specifically, it is building up a database of the prices of different kinds of products. It plans to purchase information from different sources, including the taxation department, foreign trade counselors and some foreign manufacturers.

 

Vu Ngoc Anh, Deputy General Director of the General Department of Customs, has affirmed that his department is collecting information from different sources, including intelligence information and the information from customs agencies in other countries.

 

However, a customs officer said that it is not easy to build up such a database because it will be very costly to purchase information. Especially, after buying information, Vietnam will have to spend money and time to verify the information. It is also difficult to exchange information among customs agencies of different countries, because it is a sensitive matter that may affect the benefits of enterprises.

 

Tuyet Ngan