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