Govt may raise sops for medical goods firms

NEW DELHI: The Union government has held at least two meetings during the course of the week to review the medical goods manufacturing sector, supply systems and manufacturing capacities, discussions which also focused on whether to expand sops currently applicable to the sector, such as the production-linked incentive (PLI) scheme announced last year, an official with knowledge of the matter said.

The meetings assessed all current schemes available to the bio-medical goods and pharma sectors and ways to increase the pace of utilisation of the schemes, an official of the DV Sadananda Gowda-headed chemical and fertilizers ministry said, requesting not to be quoted.

“Our focus continues to be on enhancing domestic production capacity and self-sufficiency in health care. It’s not just about the current situation but (about) long-term… (needs),” the official said.

The government may pivot the focus of the PLI scheme to manufacturers of oxygen and oxygen products, ICU equipment, invasive ventilators and respiratory devices, the official said. These include Covid testing kits and devices, such as bipaps.

“Demand for these types of equipment has increased and will increase in the future. We are constantly looking at what more is needed to boost domestic capacity,” the official said.

India, which imported nearly ₹43,000 crore worth of medical equipment in 2018-19, according to the latest available data, has seen a crippling shortage of medical gear, as an unstoppable second wave of Covid-19 infections tears through the country.

Most modern medical devices have high-end electronic components.

The massive problems of sourcing in the electronics sector, after India’s border conflagration with China, has had rippling effects on the medical devices sector too.

“The PLI scheme captures (sales) milestone over a base year of production. If you change the base year to 2021 from the existing 2020, then you can tackle a lot of these sourcing issues,” said economist Pronab Sen.