New Delhi, Mar 4 (KNN) The medical device industry of the country seems to be disappointed with the Union Budget as they said that the sector has been completely 'ignored' by the Government.

Budget’s proposal to set up 3,000 medicine shops in rural areas and insurance scheme for senior citizens is noteworthy and noble intent of low cost access to dialysis centres, said Association of Indian Medical Device Industry (AiMeD).

“But I am highly disappointed that despite much hype about ‘Make in India’ where medical device was one of the flagship sector to realize this mission and despite much expectation within the industry, the budget has done nothing specific to boost manufacturing of medical device in the country or reduce our humungous import dependency in this sector,” Rajiv Nath, Forum Coordinator, AiMeD.

In fact, the overall push or stimulus for manufacturing has suddenly disappeared in thin air. So is it bye bye ‘Make in India’, he said.

Irony with the budgetary message is that it is either this (rural development) or that (industrial development) – but aren’t both complimentary? If the government is still serious about ‘Make in India’ it can still include some minor legitimate demands of our industry which will go a long way in making medical device industry internationally competitive and world class and boost ‘Make in India’ program, the association pointed.

Some of the demands proposed by the industry includes - Withdrawal of Concessional Duty Notification of Basic Duty and Special Additional Duty of Medical Devices and for reverting of Duty on the items covered under HS 90.27, 30.06 and 38.22; Imposition of 10% Basic Duty on HS 90.27 & HS 30.06 (mainly Diagnostics-equipment & reagents); and Reduction of duty on raw materials to produce these devices and diagnostics to 2.5%.

“Government is well aware that three mega medical device parks are coming up – in Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra and Gujarat. If we do not provide appropriate budgetary and regulatory support, who will invest there? And even if investment comes, how will they become commercially viable?,” said AiMeD.

In terms of public policy against the background of India’s humungous population with majority living on very modest income, the biggest challenge that our country faces is to ensure low cost quality healthcare access for majority of citizens, it said.

In the Union Budget, FM Jaitley announced several sops for the healthcare sector including duty exemptions on certain parts of kidney dialysis equipment.

Exemptions on basic customs duty, excise countervailing duty (CVD) and special additional duty (SAD) would contribute to arresting India's high non-communicable disease (NCD) and out-of-pocket (OOP) healthcare expenditure burden, according to the finance minister. Only 50% of India's dialysis demands are met because the 4,950 centres currently existing here are largely concentrated in the private sector and major towns, explained Jaitley in his Budget speech on Monday. (KNN Bureau)