Amid Flood Of Complaints: Amend Senior Citizens Law, Cebu drugstore owners urge

CEBU CITY — Eight years after the approval of the Senior Citizens Law, some 16,000 senior citizens in this city and other parts of the country have yet to enjoy the privileges due them.

Sergio Ybañez, executive director of the Office of the Senior Citizens Affairs (OSCA), said many senior citizens have not availed themselves of the 20 percent discount for medicines they purchase from drugstores. Many drugstores, however, refuse to comply with the law.

The OSCA is tasked to assist senior citizens, who are 60 years old and above with an annual income of not more than P60,000.

Instead of following the law, the Drugstore Association of the Philippines in Cebu City is calling on the government to amend it for the benefit of both the government and its members.

The law, Republic Act 7432, provides that drugstores can claim these discounts as tax credits, although the Bureau of Internal Revenue argues that the term "tax credit" means that the amount discounted shall be deducted from the drugstores’ gross income for tax purposes.

In a letter to the OSCA, Drugstore Association president Robinson Uy said drugstores "can only give what we can afford to give so as not to sacrifice the very business that we run."

The OSCA office based at the Cebu City Hall has been receiving several complaints, both written and verbal, from senior citizens who claimed drugstore owners were ignoring their rights.

But Uy said the association is also concerned about the survival of the drugstore industry.

The drugstore industry, Uy said, is very much willing to help the government make the Senior Citizens Law succeed, but the government "should also help us in providing the tax credit as promised by the law."

Uy said there are three million senior citizens registered with OSCA and that there are about 8,000 drugstores operating in the country.

This means that for every drugstore, at least 40 of its customers are senior citizens. If, in a year, every senior citizen will purchase medicines worth P1,500, Uy said the drugstore will only be earning about P600,000.

Uy said every drugstore will have to shoulder at least P120,000 in its operations, representing the 20 percent discount being granted to senior citizens.

"It would be of no surprise that many drugstores are not even earning this amount. How then can they cope?" he added.

Drugstore owners are reportedly willing to grant discounts for generic medicines. — Freeman News Service