BDCDA calls on its 3,000 pharmacy outlets to renew KSPC registration to avoid penalties

Bengaluru, January 18, 2023:

The Belagavi District Chemists and Druggists Association (BDCDA) has called on the 3,000 pharmacy retail and wholesale outlets under its umbrella to renew their Karnataka State Pharmacy Council (KSPC) Registration. This would help the pharmacists to be in sync with good professional practices.

There are many KSPC registrations that have expired by end of December 2022. KSPC gives three months to renew the same. Many pharmacists postpone it for later date which will lead to license cancellation and result in going for fresh application submission. This will lead to scrutiny and unwarranted delay. Instead it is better to go for renewal at once to prevent these challenges, N. G. Kulkarni, Secretary, BDCDA told Pharmabiz.

In a message to the pharmacist fraternity of Belagavi, Kulkarni beckoned to ‘awake, arise and be alert’ as the new year 2023 dawns. In this regard the pharmacists need to check the renewal dates of their Karnataka State Pharmacy Council registration and jump into action immediately.

The pharmacists should check their renewal of drugs licenses and display the renewal and certificate of qualified persons along with photos so as to be visible to customers easily in their pharmacy outlets. Such practices will give the customers the much-needed confidence that their medicine purchase and advise during dispensing is by qualified pharmacy professionals who are armed with the knowledge and know-how of the prescribed formulations for the varied disease conditions, Kulkarni noted.

With the digital technology being adopted across operations to bring in transparency, reliability and efficiency, the database of pharmacy outlets are easy to access by government bodies. This leads to surprise inspections not just by the state drugs control department enforcement teams, but also GST officials among other government audit agencies. Here the pharmacy outlet owners need to be ready with the required and mandated documentation. Therefore, in order to keep away from unnecessary challenges it is better to renew and be ready for the inspections from government bodies, he said.

The absence of renewal of registration will result in penalisation of Rs 20,000 from the GST officials and exorbitant fines from other inspections by the state drugs control department. This according to Kulkarni leads to unnecessary expenses for the pharmacists which could have been avoided.

Also it is important for the pharmacy outlets to issue sale bills as mandated by law. The non-issuance of bills also result in fines and penalties. Also every outlet needs to have a qualified pharmacist present and a community pharmacist to monitor the medicines taken by people and keep a surveillance on disease emergence. In order to remain cautious and be prepared for inspections, BDCDA circulated the communication to its members, said Kulkarni. Pharmabiz