Disappointing budget for medical devices sector: AiMeD Forum Coordinator Rajiv Nath

Chennai: The Union Budget for 2023-24 is a disappointing one for the Indian medical devices industry as the expectations and assurances given earlier have not been fulfilled, Association of Indian Medical Device Industry (AiMeD) Forum Coordinator Rajiv Nath said.

According to him, the FY24 budget has given a cold shoulder to the domestic medical devices industry.

The only positive announcement was plans for skilling of manpower for manufacturing of medical technologies, he said.

"It is highly disheartening that against industry's expectations and assurance by the various government departments, the government has not announced any measures to help end the 80-85 percent import dependence forced upon India and an ever-increasing import bill of over Rs 63,200 crore," Nath said.

Though Prime Minister Narendra Modi urges India to become Atmanirbhar in medical devices, the medical devices imports continued to grow at an "alarming" level by 41 percent in FY22. India imported medical devices worth Rs 63,200 crore in 2021-22, up 41 percent from Rs 44,708 crore in 2020-21, as per data from the Union Ministry of Commerce and Industry, Nath said.

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He said, sadly, the government didn't even implement the recommendations made by the Parliamentary Committee on Health.

"If the government implements even 70 percent of the recommendations, we could have seen a reversal on the import dependence and growth of the domestic industry," he added.

"It is very painful to see the plight of domestic industry players shutting shop as the local industry cannot compete with cheaper Chinese imports. Imports of Medical Devices from China went up by nearly 50% last year from 9000Cr ₹ to 15000 Cr ₹ on account of low duties and convenience to import. These are the same domestic manufacturers, when imports got disrupted during COVID-19 crisis, the Govt. relied heavily on to meet the rising demand of essential Covid items for the country pushing the Indian medical devices sector to become self-reliant," Nath stated.

Read also: Budget FY24: AiMeD recommends increasing custom duty on import of Chinese medical devices