"It is encouraging to see the importance that the healthcare sector has got in this year's budget. Skilling of healthcare nurses and allied workers has been a long-standing gap, hindering healthcare delivery expansion, and the Union Govt. has taken a step in the right direction to address this. A significant increase in nursing and medical colleges, strong emphasis to promote innovation and R&D, PPP in healthcare and Medtech specialised workforce will lay a stronger roadmap for the future.
However, the long-standing requirements of the sector to increase healthcare spending as GDP percent to 2.5 percent, custom duty reduction to balance demand with supply and the nascent healthcare manufacturing base in equipment scheme, streamlining embedded indirect taxes like GST in healthcare making a smooth flow of credit difficult across value chain and low-cost financing schemes to strengthen healthcare infrastructure, primary care and improved working capital has not been addressed."
