Lurid. Doctors lured with junket by Pharma! ‘Junk IT returns’, Tax Tribunal firm.
‘Don’t Liva it up!’ is the message The Income Tax Appellate Tribunal has given to Liva Healthcare and those of their ilk. The Pharma Company making skincare products wished
to show the expenses incurred on foreign junket trips for Doctors as ‘deductible expense’ to dilute their tax-able income.
Typically Pharma companies sponsor doctors’ trips abroad as a euphemistic way of luring them to prescribe the pharma companies’ drugs. Some companies camouflage these trips under the guise of seminars or workshops. Some like Liva blindly try to mis-use IT provisions. They permitted doctors and their family members free travel and free accommodation with sight seeing freely included. This, in the absence of any actual professional learning engagement, highlighted the mercenary nature of the sponsorship.
Cool Chilli’s Comments
The NewsTikka team has members who have either been medical representatives or consulted for Doctors and Pharma companies for marketing/communications. Our impression of the Medical Profession and the Pharma Industry is far from the ideal we learnt in primary school.
There are still islands of hope amongst both these communities.But the rot has set in significantly in the past two decades
Hippocrates’ Oath is sadly more broken than adhered too. The Pharma industry increasingly seems to be living by the Hypocrite’s Oath.
The IT Appellate Tribunal’s order is therefore a step in the right direction. Hopefully other Pharma companies will also wake up. Being more ethical and responsible in their actions, should be an outcome of their self – regulation not a Tribunal’s enforcement. We hope the Ethical Industry as this industry likes to call itself, really sets benchmarks on how to conduct business. Cleanly, Clearly and With respect for all stakeholders.
Additional Reading
Tribunal ‘trips’ Pharma’s foreign mis-adventures
