PHARMACIES HAVE BEEN told that they must apply value added tax (VAT) to a host of over-the-counter (OTC) drugs that had escaped the tax for the past 20 years.
That means consumers could be paying at least 17.5 per cent more for popular cough medicines such as Histal, asthma inhalers, and skin medications such as Calamine Lotion, as well as painkillers like Panadol, a pharmacist told the SUNDAY SUN.
The directive was handed down by the Barbados Revenue Authority (BRA) at a meeting last Thursday attended by over 50 pharmacists and pharmacy owners.
They were told that pharmaceutical retailers had been breaking the law since VAT was introduced in 1996, the pharmacist said.
Please read the full story in today’s Sunday Sun, or in the eNATION edition.