Arnab Basumallik
Director – Government Affairs, Edwards Lifesciences
“We welcome the increased capital expenditure layout from 5.54 L Cr. to 7.5 L Cr . With effective grant-in to the states the capital expenditure can increase to 10.68 L Cr. We expect a good part of it will be spend on building healthcare infrastructure, as per the aspirations of National Infrastructure pipeline – in building 73 state of the art hospitals, tertiary hospitals in every district, secondary hospitals in every sub-division and primary health care and diagnostic centers in block levels. Enhanced expenditure on improving logistics under Gati -Shakti will improve transportation infrastructure which will also benefit the last mile deliverables of medical technologies.
Perhaps the biggest gain for health care medical technologies will be derived from the spent on launch of Aysuman Bharat Digital health mission which will help in keeping un-biased patient data collection and utilization in anonymous form which will help in identifying unmet patient needs, improve patient care and help in future R & D endeavors , as India have a vast genetic pool of patients. We also note emphasis s made on mental health which is a positive development. On Government Public procurement side, we see adoption of Transparent Quality criteria, 75 % of mandatory payments of running bills, usage of surety bonds instead of bank guarantee and usage of e-bills. We Sincerely hope the same policy will be extended to procurement of medical technologies as well – which will lead to much needed value- basedprocurement in health care – which will further improve patient outcome and help achieving ease of doing business. Moreover, we see efforts for adoption of Circular Economy with active public policies on regulation – may help Tier 2 and Tier 3 citi’s aspirational hospitals to get refurbished medical devices.
On the direct taxation and duties, we see that while the duties and cess is reduced for some devices, but the same is enhanced for Dialyzers and X-rays and hearing devices. We request the same can reconsidered, considering patient affordability. We also look forward for the abolishing of Health Cess Ad Valorem on Medical Devices for all devices for increasing affordability especially when 86 % devices are imported.”