Budget 2016: Here's what healthcare companies expect from FM Arun Jaitley

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley is slated to announce the annual budget on Monday, February 29. Pharmaceutical and healthcare companies are unanimous in certain demands from the government to help improve the lives of people -- these mostly range from an increase in spending on healthcare and pharmaceutical sectors and on R&D, creating an enabling environment for healthcare start-ups, simple tax structure for companies, and so on. Here's a look at what some pharma and healthcare companies and start-ups are hoping to see in Jaitley's budget. 

Indus Health Plus

Amol Naikawadi, Joint Managing Director, says, “We foresee a significant growth for the government to invest in preventive healthcare in the 2016-17 budget, in order to strengthen and give a boost to the segment in India.

The government should also come up with a medical innovation fund to boost healthcare entrepreneurship and consider seed funding.

Preventive health check-ups should have higher tax exemptions -- raised  from the current Rs 5,000 to Rs 20,000. This will help shift focus to preventive measures. 

The government should come up with policies to support and spread awareness of the advantages of an early diagnosis.

The spend of 1% of GDP on public health currently, should be increased along with investment in healthcare technology and infrastructure.”

Lazoi Healthcare Pvt Ltd

Suvro Ghosh, Founder, says, "This year’s budget will be very challenging; we are expecting a lot from the government to give a boost to the start-up culture as a whole.

Rationalisation of complex tax structure and incentivising the sector through a five-year tax break would be a very encouraging step towards the right direction. Minimum bureaucratic interference with a single window concept will ensure ‘ease of starting a business’ which is extremely important for a start-up and along with other key factors to drive these into this new era of entrepreneurship.

A special incentive can be given to healthcare start-ups which will definitely help address the core healthcare problems that have been plaguing this country since ages.

Keeping the positive of ‘Start-up India, Stand up India’ event into consideration, government should allocate a decent amount of budget for start-ups. The fund which will be allocated should vary from start-up to start-up based on the stage of their idea execution. Early stage start-ups need more support with funds. The allocations should also reach the start-ups on time, with transparency and without any additional hurdles.

Philips India Limited

V. Raja, Vice-Chairman and Managing Director, Philips India Limited says, “The healthcare industry in general, along with Philips, feels that creating tariff barriers will not help indigenous manufacturing. Instead, it would lead to a hike in prices of medical devices, which contributes significantly to healthcare costs for patients.”

Sami/ Sabinsa Group 

Dr. Muhammed Majeed, Founder & Chairman, said, "The “Make in India” slogan has given out very positive signals to manufacturing industries. With this budget, I expect that Ayurveda should be upgraded to a priority sector, in order to encourage research and development." 

"In terms of the beauty and wellness sector, benefits in the budget should bring about a revival in ayurvedic services and products. The Health and Wellness industry is considered to be one of the fastest growing industries in India and can further grow with the support of the government," he added.

"Considering all the aspects, the healthcare sector plays an important role in any countries' development and should be promoted by our government. Healthcare spending by the government should be progressively scaled of 2.5% of GDP," Dr Majeed said. 

LiveHealth

Abhimanyu Bhosale, CEO, co-founder expects the budget this year to take the healthcare technology industry by surprise. "The budget should reflect what Mr. Narendra Modi is trying to do for startup companies," he said.

Healthenablr

Bamasish Paul, co-founder, said he expects increased budget allocation on healthcare and child welfare sectors, especially on programmes related to reducing female child infanticide, the upgradation of hospital facilities in semi-urban and rural centres. "Special incentives for technology companies developing healthcare infrastructure and tele-health platform to help connect rural patients with doctors in urban centre in form of subsidised financial packages will help companies like Healthenablr to expand into semi-urban and rural markets”

S10 Healthcare Solutions

Sridharan Sivan, Founder, said, "India’s healthcare industry has boomed with the emergence of e-reports, appointment booking portals, telemedicine, etc.; not only in terms of economy but also in terms of employment opportunities and an expansion to under-served areas. With the technology playing a pivotal role, the future of healthcare is going to be information-rich and patient-centric.

"Besides this, the asymmetry in the demand-supply game will make the sector an attractive one for private equity investments. With a rise in the number of start-ups entering the health sector, coupled with IT there is a greater scope of creativity and innovation in the sector," he said.

Sivan has sought infrastructure status for healthcare infrastructure, which will make it easier to get funding for speciality clinics. He also said that medical visas for foreign patients should be made easier to give a boost to medical tourism in India. Moreover, Sivan also sought a raise in the tax-exempt for medical reimbursements level from 15,000 to 1,00,000.

To give e-commerce healthcare companies a boost and to encourage them to enter rural markets, the budget should encourage e-health with tax exemption, he added. 

As for GST, the government should work towards exempting healthcare services and products from Goods and Services Tax (GST), especially on preventive health check-up and wellness programs, he said.

Singhi Advisors

Currently, the pharmaceutical industry continues to benefit from lower cost of research and production which aids manufacturing for exports, Mahesh  Singhi, Managing Director, Singhi Advisors said. Indian manufacturers are expected to face fewer regulatory hurdles in FY16 on strengthened quality and control processes.

A few recent developments where the USFDA approved medicines by Aurobindo Pharma and Cipla are a good sign for the sector on the whole. The pharma industry will grow and corner even more share in the market. India’s skilled labour, experience in pharma and a market hungry for cheap medicine will help the pharma industry launch new drugs, explore new markets while expanding the existing ones.