Information about the rise in price of alcohol-containing medicines in connection with the introduction of an excise tax on alcohol periodically appears in the media.

According to the amendments made to the Tax Code in 2022, from January 1, 2024, alcohol used in the manufacture of medicines will be subject to excise duty at the rate of 600 tenge per 1 liter of alcohol. This means that in 1 ml of alcohol, the amount of excise duty will be only 60 tiyn (600 tenge / 1000 ml).

A small amount of alcohol is used in the production of medicines, while the lower the alcohol content in medicines, the more insignificant the price increase.

So, according to the approved Technological regulations, 20.4 ml of alcohol is required for the production of tincture of motherwort with a volume of 25 ml. The amount of excise tax in one bottle will be only 12.2 tenge (60 tiyn * 20.4 ml). Accordingly, the price of one bottle of tincture will increase only by 9.4% and will amount to 142 tenge (now the price in pharmacies is 130 tenge).

If you take the brilliant green "zelenka" solution, then 6 ml of alcohol is required to produce one bottle of a 10 ml solution. The amount of excise tax for one bottle will be only 3.6 tenge. Accordingly, the price of one bottle will increase only by 2.8% and will amount to 134 tenge (now the price in pharmacies is 130 tenge).

There will also be a slight increase in prices for other medicines, so:

- the cost of a bottle of valerian tincture (30 ml) will increase by 16 tenge or by 10.8%;

- the cost of a bottle of rotokan (100 ml) will increase by 20 tenge or by 4.1%;

- the cost of a bottle of menovazine (50 ml) will increase by 21.6 tenge or 7.4%.

Thus, the information about a significant increase in the price of medicines does not correspond to reality.

At the same time, according to the current tax legislation, the pharmaceutical industry has certain tax benefits, so the production and import of medicines is not subject to value added tax.

Press service of the State Revenue Committee of the Ministry of Finance of the Republic of Kazakhstan