DRAFT PRESS NOTE FROM AI-MED

We are pleased with  some of the macro economic issues  addressed by the budget.  We are pleased that the Government has decided to  abolish Fringe Benefit Taxes  which was an unnecessary irritant and we are also pleased with the  higher allocation  of the budget for the Healthcare Sector especially with respect to the National  Rural Healthcare Mission.  India has got one of the lowest allocations to Healthcare as a  percentage of the GDP in the world.  For addressing the healthcare needs of  ‘Aam Admi’  and of the rural masses who do not have access to quality private healthcare we need  to strengthen the public healthcare in India at the Primary Healthcare and District  Healthcare level.  The fine print of Budget is still not available of  how this money will be utilized whether for  preventive  healthcare   (which is more cost effective in the long run) or will be used to fight fires,  in corrective  healthcare.

At our Medical Devices Industry segment level we are disappointed that our pre-budget presentations requesting a holistic development and regulation of   focus  of the Medical Device Industry have seemingly  not been looked into.  The Indian Medical Device Industry is currently mainly import dependent and needs special focus and infrastructure development status at least  for the next 5 years.  We have been requesting for  abolishment  of List 37 which is prevalent  from many years (the current notification  is from year 2002)  and has a list of 111 life saving  items.  To encourage the indigenous development of these products by the domestic industry we had suggested to  abolish this list.  Otherwise India will continue to be  100% import dependent as before in these products.  We understand that the budget has added certain  medical devices related to  heart care to be exempted from Custom Duty.  While this will definitely benefit the consumers in short term,  India is losing  in long term. Either the similar exemptions should be  made available for  all our raw-materials and inputs and subsidy support  available on the cost of expensive R&D and the highly capital intensive equipment required for the Medical Device Industry or the multinational companies  will continue to  import and sell in  India other than be motivated to produce these items  in India.  Similarly the Indian indigenous industry will not get motivation to produce any of these Devices falling under this current list which comes in NIL or 5% rate of duty.  How can you make a product in India with the imported components and expensive machinery and make it cheaper than these imports.  The custom duty needs to be rationalized for manufacturing these devices as has been done for the other medical devices to enable the growth of the Medical Device Industry and to have its place in the  sun like Indian Pharmaceutical Industry. 

The Indian Medical Devices manufacturing industry comprises over 700 manufacturers  producing a  range of  products which includes Medical Disposables, Medical Diagnostic, Medical Electronics and Medical Equipments and Implants.

AIMED (Association  of Indian Medical Device Industry) is an Umbrella Association of Indian Manufacturers of Medical Devices  covering all types of Medical Devices including  consumables, disposables, equipments or diagnostics  representing the interest of over 150 Manufacturers of Medical Devices to cover issues and address the manufacturer’s problem.