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Higher financial allocation to R&D in infectious diseases & GST relief to MSMEs will accelerate growth in pharma
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Nandita Vijay Bengaluru
January 30 , 2021
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Higher financial allocation to bolster R&D and extending GST relief to MSMEs to accelerate pharma growth are critical support structures for both pharma and biotechnology.
According to Anil Kejriwal, global chairman, I2Cure, India is already recognized as the ‘pharmacy of the world’ and the same opportunity stares us in biotechnology. In view of the pandemic, faster adoption of technology, more specifically in preventive health is a must now. India has a huge vulnerable population which needs protection from communicable diseases, and a higher allocation towards preventive healthcare has the potential to add unto 2% to the GDP, in the long run.
“We expect a better assistance to health & adoption of biotech solutions. Even as the government is looking to increase the expenditure on health to 3% of the GDP, incremental spend on biotech solutions in preventive health can neutralize this increase in spending as it could allow higher productivity from a healthy population. Further, requisite financial allocation for the tuberculosis eradication programme, Tinea and all fungal infections needs to be chartered in the government agenda,” added Kejriwal.
“The world’s largest immunisation drive is currently underway. This requires enhanced support from all quarters and co-ordination amongst various ecosystem stakeholders. However, it should not limit its support merely to the vaccination drive. The Covid-19 pandemic laid bare the lacunae in India’s healthcare infrastructure. Further, it also underscored the importance of accessible and quality healthcare in a country and the role that it can play in economic growth. Thus, the government should provide allocations for augmenting primary healthcare capacity and improving the overall quality of healthcare,” said Shaji Kumar Devakar, senior managing partner, IIFL Wealth Management.
Stating that GST relief for the SMEs and MSMEs should be the top priority of the government, Ram Iyer, founder & CEO, Vayana Network said that rationalization of rates on various goods and services like supply chain management, HR, services of chartered accountants, under construction property as well as on passenger and commercial vehicles will support the sector.
The new rule that restricts use of input tax credit (ITC) for discharging GST liability to 99% effective January 1, 2021 should also be relaxed by the government, as this will make more cash available in the hands of MSMEs to fund their growth and increase their working capital. Especially as most of them have had very rough 2020, he added.
The E-invoicing regime is about to start for Rs 5 crore turnover companies from April 1, 2021. This will be a great push for digitization for SMEs. However, the government should make special provisions for SMEs to help them adopt E-invoicing via certain incentives such as providing free (or special priced) E-invoicing applications for such SMEs.
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