At the
recent 4th WHO Global Forum on Medical Devices “Increasing access to medical
devices” held in Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh from Dec. 13-15, the Central
government proposed increasing the custom duty on medical devices by 15-20% to
promote indigenous manufacture of medical devices.
India is the
fourth largest market in Asia after Japan, China and South Korea. It imports
80% of medical electronics, hospital equipment, surgical instruments, implants,
diagnostic reagents.
GST came as
another blow. GST does not differentiate between manufacturer and
trader/importer. Simply, anybody whether he is a manufacturer or
trader/importer can get GST input credit based on supply. Comparatively,
trader/importer became beneficial to the extent of 11% and the manufacturer got
financial disincentive to this 11%. As per Association of Indian Medical Device
Industry (AiMeD), the current basic import tariff of 0% to 7.5% needs to be
raised to 15% for medical devices and on their components to be 5%, next year
7.5%.
The
Government had launched the “Make in India” initiative in 2014 with an aim to
promote indigenous design and production of equipments, including medical
devices and infrastructure.
To promote
“Make in India”, lessons need to be learnt from other countries. For example,
China does not allow Google. Instead, the search engine used in China is Baidu.
It’s a 'Chinese' search engine.
Indigenous
technology needs to be promoted, if we aspire to meet the goal of universal
health coverage.
If we want
to promote indigenous technology, then the availability of the imported
technology should be with some riders, but it should not be banned entirely.
The latest and the right technology, which is amenable to modifications
suitable to our Indian settings, should be imported so that people can benefit
from it.
One way to
do this is to raise the custom duty on medical devices that are imported and
make them more costly, as has been proposed by the Government.
Devices that
are indigenously manufactured should be given a subsidy so that they are more
accessible.
Some other
ways to promote indigenous manufacture can be:
·
Reimbursements by CGHS, PSUs etc. should be only for
‘Made in India’ disposables, equipments, devices. If individuals opt for
imported disposables, equipments, devices, then they will have to pay for the
same.
·
Mediclaim can restrict reimbursements of foreign material,
if the ‘Indian’ counterpart is available.
·
Government should encourage indigenous manufactured
products. Perhaps they can be made compulsory, at least in the Government
sector.
·
Only indigenous products should be used under Ayushman
Bharat.
Most importantly, quality should not be compromised.
Dr KK
Aggarwal
Padma Shri Awardee
President
Elect Confederation of Medical Associations in Asia and Oceania (CMAAO)
Group Editor-in-Chief IJCP
Publications
President Heart Care Foundation
of India
Immediate
Past National President IMA
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