कोल्हापूर फिल्म कंपनी 'विठ्ठल दर्शन' अभिनेते जितेंद्र जोशी सादरीकरण करणार

 “The Budget presented in 2022 was a strong step by the Government of India to move towards a digitalized future. The introduction of an open platform for the National Digital Health ecosystem that would consist of unique health identities, digital registries, and access to health facilities was a futuristic approach to strengthen the healthcare ecosystem as a whole.

With these steps taken by the Government, the 2023 Budget needs to reflect the continued support of the Government in building the healthcare sector stronger. Some of the expectations are as below:

Policy support:

Medical tourism Since India aspires to be a top medical tourism destination, increased policy support and better connectivity can drive medical tourism beyond the metro cities in India which also has state-of-art medical infrastructure and medical services.

Reclassification and incentives Since hospitals is a long gestation business, if healthcare is classified as a priority sector for the government, it can attract funding for a longer duration and attractive rates. Also, long term tax holidays for new investments into healthcare will also give a big boost to investments in the sector.

GST in Healthcare: Enforcing GST on the output healthcare services for hospitals with the option to claim complete input tax credits will be useful to reduce the burden on hospitals. This will help the sector to derive benefits of the GST transition which many sectors have received.

Concerns while transitioning to the new income tax regime: The hospitals which have unutilised MAT credit, are unable to move to the reduced corporate tax regime of 25%. Due to this, most of these hospitals are still under the 35% corporate tax regime. The government can make it easier for such hospitals to move to the 25% corporate tax regime, as these are the hospitals which have undergone a major greenfield capacity expansion.

Clearing of past dues under central government schemes : Hospitals empanelled under such schemes, often face major working capital and cash flow concerns as the reimbursements for these patients often take 18-36 months. If the budget is allocated to these schemes based on the good outstanding due to hospitals, it will not only improve the cash crunch at these hospitals but also reinforce a lot of confidence to invest in healthcare.“