Post Budget reaction: Rajiv Nath, Forum Coordinator Association of Indian Medical Device Industry (AiMeD)
It is highly disheartening that against the industry’s expectations and assurance by the various government departments, the government has not announced any measures to help end the 80-85 per cent import dependence forced upon India and an ever-increasing import bill of over Rs 63,200 crore.
Though Prime Minister urges India to become Atmanirbhar in Medical Devices yet the medical devices imports continued to grow at an “alarming” level by 41 per cent in FY22, India imported medical devices worth Rs 63,200 crore in 2021-22, up 41 per cent from Rs 44,708 crore in 2020-21, as per data from the Union Ministry of Commerce and Industry.
Sadly, the government didn’t even implement the recommendations made by the Parliamentary Committee on Health. If the government implements even 70 per cent of the recommendations, we could have seen a reversal of the import dependence and growth of the domestic industry.
It is very painful to see the plight of domestic industry players shutting their shops as the local industry cannot compete with cheaper Chinese imports. Imports of medical devices from China went up by nearly 50 per cent last year from Rs 9000 crore to Rs 15000 crore on account of low duties and convenience to import. These are the same domestic manufacturers when imports got disrupted during the COVID-19 crisis, the government relied heavily to meet the rising demand for essential covid items for the country pushing the Indian medical devices sector to become self-reliant.
