Post Budget Analysis - Impact On The Healthcare Industry

Kavi Bhandari Jul 24, 2024

The topic for this discussion was Universal health coverage – A shot in the arm for healthcare infrastructure

At the ‘Union Budget 2024 - Road to Viksit Bharat, BW Businessworld - Day 2’, experts joined Harbinder Narula, CEO, BW Healthcare World & BW Wellbeing World, who moderated a panel discussion on the impact of this year’s Union Budget on the healthcare sector.

Healthcare allocation

The government has allocated approximately Rs. 89,287 crores for developing, maintaining and improving the country’s healthcare system, which was marginally higher than what was there earlier. The government has also allocated about 2,143 crores for the pharmaceutical industry. The budget has proposed a basic customs duty for certain medical equipment. Sunil Khurana, MD & CEO, BPL Medical Technology commented on this by saying that, “It is a welcome move as it has got it down from 15 per cent to 5 per cent. However, medical devices are about 13 to 14 billion dollars as of today and if I only look at x-ray scope it is only 4,000 crores. It is hence a very small number which we are attributing.”

The way forward

(Hony) Brig. Dr Arvind Lal, Padma Shri, Executive Chairman of Dr. Lal PathLabs stated that, “The government trying to import a few things at lesser duties is a step in the right direction. Manufacturing can be taken up on a larger scale. However, looking at the bigger picture we have to see what happens to the trade deficit between India and China, which is about 100 billion dollars.” He mentioned that this is actually a very small amount and whatever is required for manufacturing here, as in importing, then it has to be done.

India as the pharmacy of the world

“The department of pharmaceuticals has witnessed a 50 per cent increased allocation, which will help make India the pharmacy of the world, and they are already calling us the pharmacy of the world,” commented (Brig.) Dr. Lal. He also said the APIs (Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients) made in India are being manufactured in dismal kinds of amounts. He went on to question the fact that China is still holding the big APIs and the Indian drug companies have not given it importance. It is required for many drugs and hence, is crucial.

Research and development

Brig. Dr. Lal further said that the government has increased the allocation for research and development, but how much of it will trickle down to healthcare and pharmaceutical industry, needs to be seen. “There is not much clarity right now and unless you increase the inputs into R&D you are not going to get anything worthwhile. R&D takes a lot of time as well. Hence it is not 5 years or 3 years oriented, this is going to happen and we need to start spending more money on this,” he added.

Role of innovation

Khurana feels that, “After the pandemic, the technology uses for remote diagnosis went up a lot. Tele-radiology has been there for a long time now, but with the right bandwidth of the internet, it became very regular. We supplied more than 150 ICU centres, which was known as a 10 bed ICU. We supplied ready products which could develop the ICU information through monitors. We did it in Mizoram and Nagaland and it was extremely successful but we need to do more. The government needs to support this more.” He also said that execution of great ideas gets missed in India. He hopes that with the increased drive now in the department of pharmaceuticals (DOP) and health secretary office, technology will be used even more for even better health infrastructure.