While the education and power sectors have benefited from Budget 2009, there has not been any significant announcement made for the health sector, said Vishal Bali, CEO, Wockhardt Hospitals.
“Apart from increasing the allocation for the National Rural Health Mission by Rs2,057 crore and raising the ATGG exemption slab, there’s nothing very appreciable in the health budget,” he said.
The sector has been gravely disappointed for not receiving the much expected infrastructure status that it was banking on to extend its scope for development. “This only proves that the finance minister has ignored the needs of the healthcare sector,” said Bali, adding that healthcare must be given more thrust to help India achieve its growth rate-target of 8-9%.
But the budget has its positive moves as well for the sector. First, tax deductions on maintenance, including medical treatment, of a dependent with severe disability has been raised to Rs1 lakh from Rs75,000.
Bali said the removal of Fringe Benefit Tax (FBT) surcharge was going to directly benefit the average Indian. The sector, on the whole, is also rejoicing the abolition of the surcharge on personal income tax. “However, the fiscal deficit of 6.8% may create higher inflation. But there hasn’t been any announcement in this regard. The budget is tax neutral, so we need to see how the government is going to manage the fiscal deficit,” he said.
To this, his wife Taniya, a textile designer, added, “I never expected this budget to be a spectacular one. In fact, it has increased the cost of living. Considering the economic scenario, salaries won’t increase much for sometime now. Thus, this budget is surely going to make life difficult for the common man.”
However, the budget has certain positive things, like the focus on pension schemes for defence personnel and female literacy. Bali is also quite pleased with the importance given to the power and infrastructure sectors.
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