Expectations from Union Budget 2022 by Mr. Mahendra Patel, Managing Director, Lincoln Pharmaceuticals Ltd

New Delhi, January 29, 2022: Government is required to stimulate growth and boost investment with confidence from both the public and private sector in the Union Budget 2022. Special emphasis is required for job creation, lifting consumption & sentiments and building infrastructure in priority sectors – Education, Health, Rural & MSME. With no social security mechanism for people at large, inadequate public infrastructure the middle-class taxpayers were affected the worst and have high hopes from the Government.

Healthcare sector will look for higher allocation towards production Linked Incentive schemes to encourage capacity expansion of sensitive APIs, complex excipients, drug intermediates etc. Interest subsidies and restoration of weighted tax deduction u/s 35(2AB) to encourage innovation and R&D are some of the key measures required for the sector. We need to create an ecosystem for research and innovation in the country which is ignored to an extent. Covid taught very important lessons of self-reliance and innovation in the pharma sector, especially in the APIs to reduce dependence on China.  

Funds allocated for healthcare as a percentage of GDP at 1.5% continue to be lower compared to most developing nations. Keeping in mind the current pandemic situation, it is need of the hour for the government to increase the allocation towards health infrastructure across the entire infrastructure chain, specifically in tier 2 and tier 3 cities and immunisation. Higher allocation to the sector is also necessary to enable the government to achieve its target to spend 2.5% of GDP on healthcare by 2025.

Corporate Comm India (CCI Newswire)