Interim Budget: Healthcare industry expectations include incentives to boost private investment, research and development, and more.

The healthcare industry is calling for greater incentives to encourage private investment, and continued incentives for research and development, especially in antibiotic research, while increasing prices, including incentives for domestic manufacturers and reduction in GST in the next interim budget. calls for action to address the cost of active pharmaceutical ingredients. 2024-2025.

In addition to this, the industry will also increase the country’s existing bed capacity to move closer to the World Health Organization’s target of 3.5 beds per 1,000 people and provide accessible, affordable and quality-controlled healthcare. We also want to accelerate and accelerate growth. Achieve effective universal health coverage.

Dr. Gildar Gyani, founding director of the Health Care Providers Association, said his expectations for the next budget are that more allocation is needed for health promotion and prevention efforts, while other related items such as pharmaceuticals and medical devices/equipment need to be allocated more. He also said there was a need to build a medical sector to support the nation’s health.

“Most medical diagnostic equipment is imported. We need to actively promote incentives to get more technology partners to invest in this area through joint ventures and home-grown research,” he said.

Saransh Chaudhary, President, Global Critical Care, Venus Remedies Limited, said that to encourage antibiotic research in the pharmaceutical sector, measures related to drug pricing, market entry fees and non-consolidated subscriptions should be included. encouraged the exploration of innovative economic models such as economic models.

The budget should prioritize strengthening research and development infrastructure, implementing tax rationalization and preparing for a $50 billion medtech economy, Regency Hospital CEO Abhishek Kapur said. He added that to address the growing burden of non-communicable diseases, governments should consider implementing comprehensive screening and diagnostic programs, along with expanding skills improvement courses for health professionals. .

The industry has also called for increased budgetary allocation, pointing out that further rationalization of GST is expected due to availability of input credits.

Probal Ghosar, Chairman of the Board of Ujala Cygnus Hospital Group, said: However, further rationalization of GST is also expected. and certain key aspects, such as strengthening health infrastructure in secondary and tertiary cities by granting infrastructure status for private sector investment and securing low-cost financing and tax incentives. I hope that the budget will also be touched upon. ”

The experts added that they advocate a comprehensive approach to address infrastructure, human resources, patient support and digitalization to achieve a resilient and accessible health system.

Trivitron Healthcare Group CEO Chandra Ganjoo, in a statement on the budget forecast, said that India’s MedTech industry has high expectations. It is extremely important for the government to promote domestic manufacturing as an astonishing 80-85% is dependent on imports, resulting in a huge import bill of over Rs 63,200 billion. This will not only ease the fiscal burden but also propel India towards self-reliance in medical technology, he pointed out.

Meanwhile, the Indian Medical Device Industry Association, in its pre-Budget recommendations, has asked the Center to address the soaring import bill, which currently stands at over Rs 63,200 crore.

In a letter to Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, she requested assistance in reducing import dependence, which stands at over 80%.

“It is disappointing that imports in the last 12 months are still on an upward trend of more than 21% at Rs 61,000 billion compared to Rs 50,000 billion in the same period last year. Germany’s imports will jump 33% from Rs 8,186 million to Rs 18,580 million in 2021-22, while imports from Germany will increase from Rs 4,855 million to Rs 6,188 million in 2022. There is a sharp increase of 27%.Imports from the Netherlands also increased by 20% from Rs 295.6 billion in 2021-22 to Rs 355.2 billion in 2022-23.On the other hand, imports from China “Increased by 11% from Rs 9,374 billion in 2021-22 to Rs 10,384 billion in 2022-23. Singapore grew by 15% from Rs 4,800 billion to Rs 5,520 billion,” the group said in a communication. Stated.