Online BusinessBudget Wishlist: Health
CEOSPEAK: Sanjeev K Chaudhry, CEO, Super Religare Laboratories Limited
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INFRASTRUCTURE STATUS TO HEALTHCARE - THE WAY FORWARD
As clinical trials are exempted from service tax net, the central laboratory services and the central laboratories should also be exempted from the service tax net as they are an integral part of the Clinical Trial. There should be tax incentives for labs accredited by NABL of Government of India. As of now, accreditation is a huge cost but no benefits are provided for providing high-quality services.
Chamber-Speak
FICCI
The government should grant an industry infrastructure status to the health services. It should work on a national policy for public-private partnership initiatives. The government should also look at facilitating deeper penetration of insurance cover to those who need it.
CII
The government should extend the external borrowing norms in infrastructure sector to the healthcare sector as well. The government should extend the tax holidays for hospitals in tier II and tier III cities to 10 years. There should be tax incentives for indigenous manufacturing of medical eqipments.
EXPERT VIEW: Debasish Mishra, Leader Healthcare Practice, PricewaterhouseCoopers
The government must deliver on its promise to increase public health spending to three per cent of GDP. Unless government steps up investment in the health sector to tackle both communicable and chronic diseases, the burden of disease would impact economic growth, going forward. We expect the budget to continue increased allocation of funds to National Rural Health mission (NRHM) and look forward to the roll out of the National Urban Health Mission (NUHM).