Mr. K.T. Rama Rao, the Municipal Administration and Urban Development and Industries Minister of Telangana, wrote to the Central Government.
On the 15th of March, Wednesday, Mr. K.T. Rama Rao, the Working President of the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS,) wrote to the Central Government to slash the GST on medical devices to 12% and on diagnostics to 5%.
Mr. K.T. Rama Rao said, the existing 18% and to introduce schemes to promote component manufacturing in India. He also stressed on the need to incentivize companies by raising import duties in phases under a Phased Manufacturing Programme (PMP) as was being done for mobiles and X-Ray machines.
Suggesting measures for strengthening the medical devices industry in the country, the Minister wrote to union Minister for Commerce and Industry Piyush Goyal, raising key issues faced by the industry.
“The Telangana government is willing to partner with the union government to set up a Medical Imaging Hub with advanced equipment and machinery in the Medical Devices Park, Hyderabad to promote industry to manufacture these components,” Rama Rao said, pointing out that there was a need to ramp up testing facilities within the country as the number of labs for testing medical devices was inadequate for an industry that is growing at more than 15 per cent CAGR.
The existing facilities were ill-equipped and did not always have the necessary accreditation by National Accreditation Board for Testing and Calibration Laboratories (NABL) or notified and empaneled by Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO) and manufacturers did not have access to availability of blood and tissue samples. The waiting time and charges at the existing facilities were also long and high.
Rama Rao urged the union government to consider drafting of a legislation for quality testing labs in India, incentivize labs that were accredited and encourage setting up more testing facilities with advanced equipment to ensure Public Procurement is encouraged on basis of CDSCO registration or Manufacturing License and Indian Certification of Medical devices accredited by National Accreditation Board for Certification Bodies (NABCB.)
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