The government is working to reduce the prices of medicines for senior citizens by exempting the products from the value-added tax.

Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Director General Samuel Zacate said the exemption of VAT coverage will be through the Corporate Recovery and Tax Incentives for Enterprises (CREATE) or Republic Act (RA) 11534.

“Basically, the exemption for VAT is through a law – iyong (the) CREATE Law. So, those medicines have been declared by the FDA, endorsed to the BIR para matanggal or mawala iyong kanilang (to remove) VAT,” Zacate said.

RA 11534 provides VAT exemption to certain medicines for hypertension, cancer, mental illnesses, tuberculosis, kidney diseases, diabetes, high cholesterol, as well as Covid-19 drugs and medical devices.

Pursuant to the CREATE law, Zacate said the FDA is directed to identify and transmit the list of approved medicines for VAT exemption to other implementing agencies, such as the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR).

“Basically…we only endorse it to the BIR because we are the ones who determine what, what your medicine is really for. So, FDA will say, how your mechanism, how to withdraw your drug. So, it’s a joint process po of the FDA and the BIR,” he said.

Last month, President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. ordered the FDA to implement a 20 percent discount and VAT exemption for senior citizens under RA 9994 or Expanded Senior Citizens Act of 2010.