Recently, in an event of Economic Times, the founding member of Medical Technology Association of India (MTaI) Mr. Sanjay Bhutani, Country Manager, Bausch & Lomb India advised some of the significant issues on the challenges of medical device sector.
He mentioned some of the facts regarding the growth and presence of Medical devices which are made in India. He said that “Indian pharma industry is about 35 billion dollars whereas medical device is only 7 billion dollars which account for just 20 percent.”
“India counts for only 1.8 percent of the medical device industries worldwide and it is at a nascent stage”. By these figures, he was trying to explain the low stage Indian aspects of medical devices which are currently in flow all around the globe.
The request was to increase the Make in India strategy and support for it. Meanwhile when asked about the impact of GST he mentioned that, “If we look at the current rates in the current regime taking vat, excise, and customs duty into account, the blended number would be about 9 to 10 percent. Then the service which is a very smaller part of any medical device, the service tax would be about 15 percent. We are hopeful, though it hasn’t been announced that medical devices would fall into which category. So as an industry we are contemplating and hopeful that it should be around 5 percent rate. Though considering the affordability and the poor people in India, the rate should be zero.”
Asking about the recommendations for healthcare and medical device sectors, the suggestions were numerous including that reducing the tax rate, as he thinks that 9 to 10 percent would shoot very high for such an immersible service. He also asked for the easier rules and regulation for the return purpose while claiming the GST refund. He also demanded a zero tax rate as for an affordability issue and adding some demo hurdles which medical faces in between of presenting demos to the medical fraternity.