 bill no  87 of  2012 the drugs (price control) bill, 2012 by shri mk raghavan, mp 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-third year of the republic of india as follows:—1 (1) this act may be called the drugs (price control) act, 2012short title and commencement(2) it shall come into force on such date as the central government may, by notificationin the official gazette, appoint5definitions2 in this act, unless the context otherwise requires,—(a) "dealer" means a person engaged in the business of purchase or sale of drugs,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 his 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 of thehuman body or intended to be used for the destruction of vermin or insects which cause diseases in human beings; and(iii) drugs of all systems of medicine like allopathy, homoeopathy, ayurveda,unani and siddha10 3 (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 drugs(2) the committee shall consist of—constitutionof drugs (pricecontrol) committee15(i) the minister of health and familychairman, ex officio;welfare, government of india(ii) three representatives of majormembers;hospitals including government run hospitals(iii) two representatives of drugsmembers;industry20(iv) two representatives of indianmembers;system of medicine(v) secretary to the government ofmemberindia, ministry of health and familysecretary, ex officiowelfare254 the committee shall—functions of the committee(i) fix the prices of drugs after taking into consideration the costs of manufacturing,storage, packaging, import of formulation and distribution as well as profit of manufacturer and such other factors as it may deem necessary;(ii) promote the use of generic drugs; and (iii) determine the standard of drugs305 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 determined by the committeepenalty6 (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 rupees35(2) where an offence under this act has been committed by a company, the license of such company shall be cancelled forthwithexplanation—for the purpose of sub-section (2), "company", means any body corporate, and includes a firm or other association of individuals40power to make rules7 (1) the central government may, by notification in the official gazette, make rules forcarrying out the purposes of this act(2) every rule made under this section shall be laid, as soon as may be after it is made, before each house of parliament, while it is in session, for a total period of thirty days which may be comprised in one session or in two or more successive sessions, and if, before the expiry of the session immediately following the session or the successive sessions aforesaid, both houses agree in making any modification in the rule or both the houses agree that the rule  should not be made, the rule shall thereafter have effect only in such modified form or be of no effect, as the case may be; so, however, that any such modification or annulment shall be without prejudice to the validity of anything previously done under that rule5 statement of objects and reasonsprices of drugs and medicines are on the increase the prices are increased arbitrarily by manufacturers and traders 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 check on the prices of drugs medical practitioners with the lure of money and costly gifts from manufacturers generally prescribe costly medicines which common man cannot afford they should instead prescribe generic drugsthe bill seeks to constitute a committee to—(i) fix the prices of drugs; (ii) promote the use of generic drugs; and (iii) determine the standard of drugsthe bill seeks to achieve the above objectivesnew delhi;mk  raghavanaugust 7, 2012 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 one hundred crore  per annuma non-recurring expenditure of about rupees fifty 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 the bill as the rules will relate to matters of detail only, the delegation of legislative powers is of a normal character———— a billto provide for constitution of a committee for fixing the prices of drugs and for matters connected therewith or incidental thereto————(shri mk raghavan,  mp)mgipmrnd—2335ls(s3)—23082012