India.com: New Delhi: Thursday,
February 23, 2017.
The Central
Information Commission today directed the National Pharmaceutical Pricing
Authority to disclose all records on the basis of which “ceiling prices” for
the coronary stents were fixed.
The
transparency watchdog also directed the NPPA to maintain catalogued data of all
complaints bringing out instances of overcharging by hospitals along with
action taken by it.
“Details of
aforesaid complaints found true along with penal/ corrective action taken by
NPPA shall be proactively placed in public domain through the website of NPPA,”
Information Commissioner Yashovardhan Azad said in his order.
He said these
directions are being issued under the powers conferred under Section
19(8)(a)(iv) of the RTI Act, 2005 to “promote greater transparency, which shall
ensure that the benefits of beneficial executive actions reach the general
masses”.
The Section
of the transparency law empowers the Commission to issue directives to any
public authority to make necessary changes “to its practices in relation to the
maintenance, management and destruction of records”.
The order
came on the plea of Suraj Prakash who had sought to know the basis on which the
NPPA has fixed the prices of all types of coronary stents.
“The
Commission is inclined to allow the request of the appellant considering the
larger public interest involved the CPIO
shall also furnish complete information including notesheets along with the
relevant documents/ price costing estimations etc. whereupon the ‘ceiling
prices’ were arrived at by the NPPA,” Azad said.
The issue of
coronary stents came to media limelight following instructions issued by the
government yesterday invoking an emergency clause under drug pricing control
law thus making it mandatory for stent makers to maintain production and supply
of coronary stents.
However, the
matter before the Commission pertained to an RTI application filed on September
9, 2015.
The
pharmaceutical department said there have been reports of shortage of coronary
stents in the market and hospitals.
Last week,
the government had slashed prices of stents by up to 85 per cent by capping
them at Rs 7,260 for bare metal ones and Rs 29,600 for the drug eluting
variety.
Under the
Section 3 (i) of DPCO, 2013, the government can regulate distribution and direct
any manufacturer to increase production and sell products to institutions,
hospitals or any agency as the case may be in case of emergency or in
circumstances of urgency or in case of non-commercial use in public interest.