800 medicines including paracetamol will become expensive from April

The National List of Essential Medicines (NLEM) means that the prices of about 800 medicines coming in the list of essential medicines are going to increase by 10.7 percent from April. This is going to happen because of the sharp rise in the Wholesale Price Index (WPI).

The annual increase of medicines that come in the National List of Essential Medicines of India is based on the Wholesale Price Index. Apart from retailing these essential medicines are used in many health programs of the government and government health institutions. From April 1, 2022, the price of medicines will start seeing an increase.

On 7 March, the government said that in the last month i.e. February, the wholesale inflation rate stood at 13.11 percent. In this way, for the 11th consecutive month in February 2022, the wholesale inflation rate remained in double digits. Wholesale inflation stood at 12.96 per cent in January and 13.56 per cent in December 2021.