Union Budget 2024: Healthcare industry’s mixed verdict

Shantanu Jindel, Partner, INDUSLAW: 

“Given the impetus on making the healthcare sector self-reliant and commitments made in the manifesto of the ruling party, the budget clearly fell short of the expectations.”

Aman Puri, Founder, Steadfast Nutrition:

“There have been no big bang reforms in healthcare in the 2024 Budget, which remains disappointing for the sector since it’s evident that the focus has diminished. Health should have also been among the 9 priority areas identified by the government for focused development. Despite recommendations by the National Health Policy 2017, the Economic Survey 2021, and experts to increase healthcare expenditure to 2.5-3 per cent of the GDP, the allocation remains stagnant at about 2 per cent of the GDP in the 2024 Budget- the world average is 6 per cent, a reason for the country’s poor health infrastructure. The proposed expenditure on healthcare for Rs 2024-25 is Rs 89,287 crores, which is just marginally higher from ₹88,956 crore in 2023-2024. We need to strengthen primary and secondary healthcare in India and with these numbers, we will not be able to do so. We are the most populous country with a lot of diversity, which necessitates disease prevention strategies and allocation of funds for knowledge enhancement in the rural areas by setting up more public health units, giving proper training to the health workers at the grassroots level, nutrition guidance at the very early stage, including to lactating mothers to prevent diseases like diabetes and cardiovascular diseases. The Budget should have taken steps to address these issues.“

Shreevalli V, COO – Kinder Women’s Hospital And Fertility Centre:

“The customs duty exemption on some of the  cancer medicines and reduction of duties on select medical equipments will help to enhance India’s capabilities in healthcare.

It’s heartening to note that advanced cancer treatments will get more affordable from now on. However, we had expected the government to bring IVF treatments under health insurance parameters. Many couples are not able to afford IVF treatments because of the cost burden. But this hasn’t happened in this year’s budget and we hope the FM can look into this.” 

Shuchi Ray, Partner, Deloitte India:

The Government has allocated Rs. 89,287 crores towards healthcare sector, which is marginally higher than the original budget allocation estimate of Rs. 89,155 crores last year. A few very specific announcements pertaining to the sector are welcome, viz., exemption of three cancer medicines from customs duties keeping in perspective affordability and rationalising the customs duty in case of X-ray tubes and Flat panel detectors and for some input materials used in manufacturing of orthopaedic implants and artificial parts of the body, is clearly a recognition towards boosting domestic manufacturing of such medical equipment / devices. While healthcare has not found its place in the budget priorities, however, it has clearly been integrated with most of the priorities announced. In pursuance of priority relating to manufacturing and services, development of Digital Public Infrastructure Applications is proposed in various areas including healthcare, and under Priority relating to Next Generation Reforms, it has been recognised to step up adoption of technology towards digitalisation of the economy aiming at improving access to everyone including health. In priority relating to Innovation, Research & Development, it is proposed to operationalise the Anusandhan National Research Fund for basic research and prototype development, and to set up a mechanism for spurring private sector-driven research and innovation at commercial scale with a financing pool of 1 lakh crore. Though it is not clear how much of this will be allocated towards pharma and medical devices sector, it is hoped that a significant allocation under this priority will be made towards research in pharma and medical devices. While higher allocation to the sector and certain sector specific announcements could have helped, still, the integration of healthcare with most of the priorities, has still kept the sector in the race.