PETALING JAYA (Mar 3): The Pharmaceutical Association of Malaysia (PhAMA) has urged the Government to categorise all medicines sold here as "zero rated" under the proposed goods and services tax (GST) .

Malaysia will implement the GST starting this April 1. Today, PhAMA president Yew Wei Tarng said merely placing medicines under the National Essential Medicine List (NEML) under the GST's zero-rated category would result in a negative impact to the country.

This is because most medicines sold here do not fall under the NEML, according to Yew. He said upon the GST implementation, out of 12,000 medicines registered with the Health Ministry, 2,900 NEML entities would not be taxed under the GST.

"70% to 75% of the medicines registered under the Health Ministry will still be taxed. This will affect healthcare quality as most new and innovative drugs are still not listed under NEML.

"This will result in patients having to pay tax if their medication involves drugs that are not listed under NEML. It will be very burdensome to them," Yew told pressmen here today during a roundtable discussion on the implication of the 6% GST on medicines.

According to him, the NEML is revised only every two to three years.