India budget for financial year 2011-12 neutral on Pharmaceuticals sector
One of the most awaited yearly affairs of Indian parliament took place on February 28, 2011. The Government of India presented the budget for 2011-12. The finance minister of India presented the budget in the Lok Sabha. As usual with all the annual budgets by Indian Government, there were lots of expectations from all the people including the companies involved in the pharmaceuticals sectors and companies like Khatore Pharmaceuticals private limited that are engaged in Ayurvedic (alternative) medicine business.
The budget hiked the allocations for health sector for the next financial year of 2011-12. The government continued to provide the push for better health care for the citizens and hiked the plan outlay for health by 20 percent. Alternative medicines also got a push in the budget with the government announcing the reduction in the import duties for certain inputs for the manufacturer of alternate medicine. Alternate medicines got a Rs 900 crore push. Allocation for cancer care in government hospitals saw a 250% increase to Rs 175 crore (from Rs 50 crore in 2010-11) while polio faced a cutback in funds, from Rs 835 crore last year to Rs 664 crore in 2011-12.
The UPA’s flagship National Rural Health Mission saw its allocation soar from Rs 13,463.67 crore to Rs 16,056 crore. The announcements in budget were especially good for the poor people and one such announcements was to increase the allocations for “The Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana” which will be now extended to MGNREGA (Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act) beneficiaries, beedi workers and others. Its allocation has gone up from Rs 9 crore to Rs 90 crore. In 2011-12, the government further proposed to extend the scheme to cover unorganized sector workers in hazardous mining and associated industries like slate and slate pencil, dolomite, mica and asbestos etc.
The biggest relief for the industry and companies like Khatore Pharmaceuticals is that the budget did not hike the excise duty on drugs and did not roll back the stimulus package that were extended couple of years back, though there were some apprehensions in this regard. The relief extended by the government will boost the sales of the small pharmaceuticals companies and help them in these tough economic times when the prices of most of the things have increased.
At the same time the Government has imposed five per cent service tax on treatment in private hospitals, paid either by individuals, insurance companies or firms. The same levy would be applicable to diagnostic tests of all kinds. This will however not be applicable to government hospitals. The health care industry has criticized the service tax imposition and has demanded its rollback. The Government has also reassured to take a relook into the issue.
In the nutshell the analysts and experts believe that there was more that the Government could have done for the industry and as per the pundits of the industry, overall the budget was neutral for the pharmaceuticals industry.
India has a growing business of pharmaceuticals industry and it is the leader in Ayurvedic medicine and one of the leaders in the generics. The creator of this report, Khatore Pharmaceuticals makes Ayurvedic medicines for various ailments. The key products from Khatore Pharmaceuticals are Kamalahar, K-MATIC and K-MENS. Kamalahar is a unique ayurvedic product composed of herbs which are very effective for treatment of liver disorders such as hepatitis, Jaundice, cirrhosis, fatty liver, etc.
I work for Khatore Pharmaceuticals as marketing manager. I look after their Ayurvedic product Kamalahar. Kamalahar is very effective for the treatment of liver disorders, hepatitis, jaundice, cirrhosis, fatty liver.
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