 bill no xxxix  of  2014 the drugs (price control) bill, 2014 a billto provide for constitution of a committee for fixing the prices of drugs and for matters connected therewith or incidental theretobe  it enacted by parliament in the sixty-fifth year of the republic of india as follows:—1 (1) this act may be called the drugs (price control) act, 2014short title and commencement(2) it shall come into force on such date as the central government may, by notificationin the official gazette, appointdefinitions52 in this act, unless the context otherwise requires,—(a) "dealer" means a person engaged in the business of purchase or sale ofdrugs, whether as a wholesaler or retailer and whether or not in conjunction with any other business and includes his agent;10(b) "distributor" means a distributor of drugs or his agent and includes a stockistappointed by a manufacturer or an importer for stocking  drugs for sale to a dealer; and(c) "drug" includes—(i) all medicines for internal or external use of human beings and allsubstances intended to be used for, or in the diagnosis, treatment, mitigation, or prevention of any disease or disorder in human beings including preparations applied on human body for the purpose of repelling insects like mosquitoes;5(ii) such substances, intended to affect the structure or any function ofthe human body or intended to be used for the destruction of vermin or insects which cause diseases in human beings; and(iii) formulations all systems of medicine like allopathy, homoeopathy,ayurveda, unani and siddha103 (1) there shall be constituted a committee to be known as the  drugs (price control)committee (hereinafter referred to as the committee) to fix the prices of drugsconstitutionof drugs pricecontrol committee(2) the committee shall consist of—chairman, ex-officio;(i)the minister of health and family welfare, government of india15members(ii)three representatives of major hospitals includinggovernment run hospitalsmembers;(iii)two representatives of drugs industrymembers;(iv)two representatives of indian system of medicine20(v)secretary to the government of  india, ministry of health and family welfaremember secretary,ex-officio(3) the terms and condition of the members appointed under sub-clause (2) (ii), (iii)and (iv) shall be such as may be prescribed by rules25(4) the union ministry of health and family welfare shall provide the secretarial assistance to the committee4 the committee shall—functions of the committee30(i) fix the prices of drugs after taking into consideration the costs of manufacturingstorage, packaging, import of formulation and distribution as well as profit ofmanufacturer and such other factors as it may deem necessary;(ii) promote the use of generic drugs; and (iii) determine the standard of drugs5 no person or a manufacturer or a distributor or a dealer shall sell any drug to any consumer at a price exceeding the price fixed by the committeeprohibition on selling of drug at a price exceeding the price fixed by the committeepenalty356 (1) whoever contravenes the provisions of this act shall be punished withimprisonment for a term which may extend to six months and with fine which may extend to one lakh rupees(2) where an offence under this act has been committed by a company, the license of such company shall be cancelled forthwith40explanation —for the purpose of sub-section (2), "company", means any bodycorporate, and includes a firm or other association of individualspower to make rules7 the central government may, by notification in the official gazette, make rules forcarrying out the purposes of this act statement  of objects  and  reasonsprices of drugs and medicines are on the rise however, the government controls the prices of 348 drugs listed in the national list of essential medicines recently, the drug price regulator, the national pharmaceutical pricing authority (nppa) had withdrawn guidelines for price control of 108 life saving drugs thereby allowing pharmaceutical companies to raise price as per their choice to secure windfall gainthe prices of drugs are increased arbitrarily by manufacturers and traders the poor regulatory mechanism allows the manufacturing and marketing of spurious drugs in the name of the generic version people, especially poor people, are affected by the exorbitant cost of drugs they are not able to afford the medicines at present there is no legislation to put a check on the prices of drugs medical practitioners under the garb of money and costly gifts from manufacturers generally prescribe costly medicines which common man cannot afford they should instead prescribe generic drugs which are cheaper and more affordable and as effective as branded ones the bill seeks to achieve the above objectivessanjay sinh financial memorandumclause 3 of the bill provides for constitution of a committee to be known as the drugs(price control) committee to fix the prices of drugs the bill, therefore, if enacted, would involve expenditure from the consolidated fund of india it is likely to involve a recurring expenditure of about rupees five hundred crore per annuma non-recurring expenditure of about one hundred crore is also likely to be involved memorandum  regarding  delegated  legislationclause 7 of the bill empowers the central government to make rules for carrying out the purposes of this bill since the rules will relate to matters of details only, the delegation of legislative powers is of a normal characterrajya  sabha—————abillto provide for constitution of a committee for fixing the prices of drugs and for matters connected therewith or incidental thereto—————(dr sanjay sinh, mp)gmgipmrnd—3798rs(s3)—18-12-2014