President instructs to implement price control on medicine to combat Aasandha waste

President Dr. Mohamed Muizzu, on Wednesday, has instructed to take measures to combat the sale of medicine at a huge profit to the price in order to bring a stop to wasteful expenses by Aasandha.

The President announced that he issued the instructions via a post on X on Wednesday night in which he underscored that medicine imported to the Maldives are sold at a huge profit to the price.  

Henceforth, he said he has instructed to take measures to implement price control on medicine to bring a stop to the sale of medicine at huge profits.

“In the Maldives, imported prescription medicine is sold at added profits of 200 percent to 2,000 percent. The relevant authorities have been instructed to take the required measures to put a stop to acquiring the huge profit in the sale of medicine,” the tweet read.

President Muizzu said the measures will pave way to decrease the price of medicine in the market and the expenses incurred by Aasandha. He noted the details of this change will be publicized very soon.

The President states the measures will help save millions being wasted from Aasandha, adding the funds saved can be utilized to improve healthcare services.

Notably, the government has recently expressed its intention to bring an end to the current practice under Aasandha which benefits the richest people and puts the average or below-average person at a loss.

This is among steps to decrease the expenses of the state.

The failure to regulate the prices of medicine has resulted in importers gaining huge profits via Aasandha scheme.