New Delhi, January 25: All eyes are on the Union Budget 2017 which will be tabled next week on Wednesday by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley. As soon as the preparation for the Budget 2017 has started the office and the residence of Arun Jaitley has turned into a fortress as there are lots of expectations of people and companies from the Finance Minister.
These are some of the expectations of people from the Healthcare Budget 2017:
Rana Mehta, Leader Healthcare, PwC, reportedly said that the government must exempt the healthcare services under the new GST regime. Mehta said that exemption under the new GST ensure greater accessibility to care and catalyse the growth of the industry. Mehta further suggests that instituting a health care savings fund for all salaried employees are similar to the Provident Fund scheme which would be tax deductible. Mehta further argues that exemption of GST on health insurance premiums will help better penetration on such schemes.
Also, Mehta, an expert in the healthcare industry says that allowing a separate deduction for preventive health checks of Rs 10,000 per family will ensure early detection and treatment of disease.
Sanjay Murdeshwar, Managing Director, AstraZeneca Pharma India Limited reportedly said that the government must address the growing burden of the non-communicable diseases such as diabetes, asthma and cancer. Digital technologies and newer health care delivery models are needed to increase accuracy in the healthcare sector.
On the other side, S Sridhar, Managing Director, Pfizer Ltd reportedly said that the healthcare expenditure in India should be increased substantially from its current allocation, which is less than 2 per cent of our GDP.
The biggest challenge government may face in the healthcare sector after demonetisation is that the cash crunch has led to a drop of 10-15 per cent decline in healthcare spend, with patients deferring elective surgical and medical procedure. Also, the retail sale of drugs and medicines has also witnessed a slight dip, the diagnostic services suffered a drop of around 15 per cent.
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