Source: Jornal Nacional – TV – Rio de Janeiro/RJ – 10/12/2009

 Even with all the tax incentives after the international economic crisis, the Ministry of Finance announced that there is no project to reduce taxes on medicines.

In this edition, Jornal Nacional brings a report on Justice. But not the courts. Tax justice. Since the international financial crisis broke out, the government has reduced taxes on several products. Cars, household appliances, construction material. Yesterday, machines used by industries also entered. But the government's list does not include a product that people use out of necessity.

It is not for comfort, nor for pleasure. This injustice is in the report by Mônica Sanches. In search of the best price, Ms. Odete, 74 years old, researches several pharmacies before buying medicine. “They are very expensive, I think they are very expensive”, comments retiree Maria Odete Pires. And at this price, taxes alone weigh 35%, according to the Brazilian Institute of Tax Planning. A woman spends R$120 per month on medicine. Of this total, R$42 comes from taxes alone.

“It would be wonderful if I didn’t have to pay all this,” he said. The tax on medicines is even higher than the taxes on products such as bikinis, panettone and fans. “You cannot compare the essentiality of a medicine with the essentiality of a panettone, for example. Even though the tax burden on panettone is lower than on medicine. And the medicine, the good it does, cannot even be compared”, believes the IBPT representative. Without taxes, the R$9 painkiller would cost less than R$6. And the price of an antibiotic, from R$63, would drop to almost R$41. The difference is R$22. This burden of taxes on the price of Medicines are considered by experts to be a legacy of the Brazilian tax system from the 1960s. At that time, a large part of medicines and raw materials for the pharmaceutical industry were imported. “Over time, the national industry developed, but the tax burden was never corrected. Hence the importance of tax reform and reducing the burden on medicines”. The Federal Government does not talk about reducing taxes.

“There is nothing in relation to medicines, I think the best measures taken in relation to medicines were generics, which make the cost of medicines much cheaper. There is no exemption foreseen for medicines”, said the Minister of Finance, Guido Mantega.