Hyderabad, Mar 15 (KNN) The Telangana IT and Industries Minister, KT Rama Rao in a letter to the Union Minister for Commerce and Industry, Piyush Goyal has urged the government to reduce the GST on medical devices and diagnostics to 12 per cent and 5 per cent, respectively, as opposed to the current 18 per cent levied.

The Industries minister also appealed for the introduction of a scheme to promote component manufacturing in India. He also stressed on the need to incentivize companies by raising import duties in phases under a Phased Manufacturing Programme (PMP) as was being done for mobiles and X-Ray machines.

Rao pointed out that the Telangana government is willing to partner with the union government to set up a Medical Imaging Hub with advanced equipment and machinery in the Medical Devices Park, Hyderabad to encourage industry to manufacture these components.

“There is a need to ramp up testing facilities within the country as the number of labs for testing medical devices was inadequate for an industry that is growing at more than 15 per cent CAGR,” he said.

He urged the union government to consider drafting of a legislation for quality testing labs in India, incentivize labs that were accredited and encourage setting up more testing facilities with advanced equipment to ensure Public Procurement is encouraged on basis of CDSCO registration or Manufacturing License and Indian Certification of Medical devices accredited by National Accreditation Board for Certification Bodies (NABCB).

In terms of size, the Indian market is among the top 20 in the world and fourth largest in Asia after Japan, China and South Korea.

“It is high time that the union government reviewed and corrected inverted import duty structures and barriers to manufacture in India to encourage ‘Make in India’ to reduce import dependence,” he added.  (KNN Bureau)