New Delhi: Immediately after Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman presented the first full budget of Narendra Modi 3.0 government on Tuesday, the Indian Medical Association (IMA) termed the allocation in the health sector as “merely an eye wash.”
“It's just an eyewash. The is no special mention of health infrastructure, creation of new hospitals and measures to prevent non-communicable disease,” said IMA assistant secretary Dr Thakur Padmanabhan to ETV Bharat.
Referring to the exemption of three more cancer medicines from customs duty, Dr Padmanabhan said, “How many people in India are suffering from cancer? The government should have concentrated on building health infrastructure and setting up new hospitals,” he said.
He further stated that there is no availability of critical medicines in government hospitals and CGHS. “People need to purchase those medicines and drugs from private pharmacies with high costs,” said Dr Padmanabhan.
Finance Minister Sitharaman has proposed an estimate of Rs 90958.63 crore for 2024-25 as health budget. Of the total estimated budget, Rs 87656.90 has been proposed for the Department of Health and Family Welfare whereas Rs 3301.73 crore has been proposed for the Department of Health Research.
Significantly, three medicines have been fully exempted from customs duty for cancer patients. “To provide relief to cancer patients, three more medicines will be fully exempted from customs duty. I propose changes in the basic customs duty on X-ray tubes and flat panel detectors for domestic X-ray machines’ production,” Sitharaman said while presenting her seventh budget in the Lok Sabha.
In the interim budget that was presented in Parliament in February this year, the health budget allocation was Rs 90658.63.
Some of the important components of the Health Ministry receiving attention include the National AIDS and STD Control Programme (Rs 2892.00 crore), All India Institute of Medical Sciences-Delhi (Rs 4523.00 crore), autonomous bodies, including the National Institute of Mental Health and Neuro Sciences-Bengaluru, Regional Institute of Medical Sciences-Imphal (Rs 18013.62 crore) and Rs 36000 crore proposed for the National Health Mission.
For Infrastructure Development for Health Research an amount of Rs 148.00 crore, Indian Council of Medical Research-New Delhi, an amount of Rs 2732.13 crore has been proposed.
Meanwhile, the Association of Indian Medical Device Industry (AiMeD) hailed the Union Budget-2024 presented by Sitharaman, as visionary and progressive, which will give a boost to the country’s overall economic growth.
The AiMeD Forum Coordinator, Rajiv Nath said, “The Union Budget-2024 is visionary and progressive. It will give a boost to the country’s overall economic growth. It reflects Prime Minister Narendra Modi's determination to realise the goal of a US $ 10 trillion economy by 2030 and Viksit Bharat by 2047.”
He said that the nine priorities of the government - productivity and resilience in agriculture; employment and skilling; inclusive human resource and development and social justice; manufacturing services; urban development; energy security; infrastructure; innovation and research and development and next-generation reforms will act as a catalyst for the country’s overall economy.
Talking about the medical device industry vis a vis the Union Budget-2024, Nath said, “We are thankful to the GoI for the reduction in duty on the import of components of X-ray equipment until these get to be produced in India. This enables continuity in investment in efforts to become a manufacturing hub of x-ray equipment globally.”
“Since there are no domestic manufacturers available for these two critical components, the relief from the government is appreciable,” he said.
“We at AiMeD had, however, been hoping that the recommendations of DoP, which were backed by DGHS, would have helped on nominal duty increase on at least those medical devices that India had substantial manufacturing capacity as demonstrated during Covid-19 pandemic times,” said Nath.
He said that in a representation to Arunish Chawla, Secretary, Department of Pharmacy (DoP) made in January, the AiMeD had raised the issue of an increase in customs duty and removal of benefits for import of x-ray tube and flat panel detector under the Phased Manufacturing Programme (PMP).
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