The Hindu : A slew of measures for medicare

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Mar 02, 2003

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A slew of measures for medicare

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI MARCH 1. Declaring promotion of people's health as one of the priority concerns of the Government, the Union Finance Ministry announced a slew of measures to improve the access to better medicare facilities for all categories of people.

A highlight of the package is removal of excise duty on life-saving drugs that currently attract nil or five per cent customs duty and reduction of customs duty on specified life-saving equipment from 25 per cent to five per cent.

In addition, customs duty on brailles, artificial limbs, hearing aids, crutches, wheelchairs, walking frames, tricycles and ophthalmic blanks have been reduced to five per cent. Glucometers and test strips used by diabetic patients would also be cheaper, as the customs duty on them has been halved from 10 per cent.

The package, announced yesterday as part of the Union budget for 2003-04, includes a cut in the excise duty on Nicotin Polacrilex gum from 16 per cent to eight per cent to help smokers kick the habit, and offers tax incentives to encourage the private sector to set up new medical facilities or expand the existing ones.

The proposal is to extend the benefits of section 10 (23 G) of the Income Tax Act to financial institutions that provide long-term capital to private hospitals with 100 beds or more.

As per this section, income earned by financial institutions by way of interest on loans provided to such hospitals would not attract tax. At present, the scheme is applicable only to projects in the areas such as housing, telecom services, power-generation and infrastructure development.

The budget also proposes to launch a community-based universal health insurance scheme for those living below the poverty line.

Under the scheme, a premium of Rs. 365 for an individual, Rs. 547 for a family of five and Rs. 730 for a family of seven would entitle a reimbursement of medical expenses upto Rs. 30,000 towards hospitalisation, Rs. 25,000 in case of death due to accident, and a compensation of Rs. 50 a day for a maximum of 15 days in case of loss of earning because of illness. The Government would contribute Rs. 100 per family every year to make the scheme affordable to them.

Mr. Singh said the measures had been designed keeping in mind three objectives: contribute to enhanced national health, promote India as a global health destination and enable easier access to health facilities to the disadvantaged sections of society.

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