FDA Director General Samuel Zacate said essential medicines are exempt from VAT under Republic Act No. 11534 or the Corporate Recovery and Tax Incentives for Enterprises (CREATE) Law.

Among those to be exempted from VAT are medicines for hypertension, cancer, mental illnesses, tuberculosis, kidney diseases, diabetes, high cholesterol and COVID-19.

“Basically the exemption for VAT is through a law - iyong CREATE Law. So those medicines have been declared by the FDA, endorsed to the BIRA para matanggal or mawala iyong kanilang VAT,” Zacate told a press conference over the weekend.

However, aside from RA 11534, Republic Act No. 9994 or the Expanded Senior Citizens Act of 2003 already exempts elderly Filipinos from VAT payments for their food and medicines.

Zacate said the FDA is now in the process of identifying medicines that will not carry VAT and will send the list to the BIR for its guidance and implementation.

He told the news media that the grant of exemption is a joint process that the FDA and BIR will carry out.

Earlier, the FDA warned told pharmacy operators to grant senior citizens 20 percent discount for over-the-counter medicines they purchase.

Zacate clarified in FDA Advisory No. 2024-0429 he issued last month that drugs stores, hospital pharmacies, clinics and other health care professionals that the grant of senior discounts for OTCs is provided under Administrative Order 2012-007-A that was issued in 2012 by the Department of Health.

The said DOH order stressed that senior citizens should no longer be required to present doctor’s prescription whenever they purchase OTCs to be able to avail of the discount.