Budget 2025: Experts Urge Focus on Innovation, Pharma, and Health


The Union Budget 2025 must prioritize healthcare and pharmaceuticals, focusing on growth, innovation and accessibility.

Experts said the Union Budget 2025 should implement transformative measures to boost innovation, manufacturing and export competitiveness in the healthcare and pharmaceutical sectors. Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman will present the Union Budget 2025 in Lok Sabha on February 1. While previous budgets have laid a solid foundation with initiatives such as production-linked incentive (PLI) schemes and increased focus on R&D, the industry now awaits policies that align with India’s ambition to become a pharmaceutical market of $130 billion by 2030.

Tax incentives are key to the resilience of the health sector

“This year’s expectations revolve around incentivizing research, optimizing tax frameworks and encouraging regulatory flexibility to drive growth and resilience of the sector in an evolving global landscape,” said Garima Malhotra, associate partner, healthcare and life sciences of Praxis Global Alliance. The expert pointed out the need to boost research and implored the government to increase investment in drug development parks and research institutes and to encourage links between academia and industry. “We hope that the government will introduce additional tax deductions, such as 1.25x for training expenses. and skill development initiatives,” Malhotra said.

The industry also hopes to prioritize long-term financial solutions, including tax incentives, extended loan repayment periods, public-private partnerships, and the establishment of dedicated innovation zones. The experts also highlighted the need for strategic reforms in healthcare and life sciences to shape a resilient and inclusive healthcare system.

This includes key measures to streamline regulatory frameworks, accelerate R&D incentives and introduce policies to facilitate the importation of refurbished medical devices. “Expanding import duty exemptions for life-saving medicines and cancer treatments will significantly reduce costs and improve access. The commitment to increase public health spending to 2.5 percent of GDP by 2025, together with investments in rural health infrastructure and a unified GST framework, will improve affordability across the system,” said Munira Loliwala, Vice President of Strategy and Growth of TeamLease Digital.

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Meanwhile, Poonam Muttreja, Executive Director, Population Foundation of India, underlined the critical need to align fiscal policies and allocations with India’s demographic trends, as well as invest in empowering our youth, promoting gender equality and support our aging population.

Source-IANS



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