The medical devices industry has demanded the Central government to set up a core committee consisting of joint secretaries from the commerce ministry, ministry of health, department of pharmaceuticals (DoP) and DIPP. The main aim behind this demand is to ensure that these officials from the core committee will act as the drivers to finally implement the recommendations of the task force. A delegation of the medical device industry recently met DoP secretary in this connection.
Experts from the industry state that they have been forced to take this steps as there has been no initiative by the government to act upon the task force recommendations. Apart from this, they also insisted that these recommendations need to be approved by the cabinet so that the ministries responsible to take a call on these recommendations can finally put their act together.
It is important to note that cabinet approval is not essential, however, Rajiv Nath, forum coordinator of AIMED, insisted that the industry as a whole is persistent for the same as it will bring in some responsibility within the respective ministries.
"The industry which has been struggling for many years in the country due to unfavorable market conditions, felt optimistic following the release of the task force recommendations. However, today we seriously question whether the government is truly interested in addressing the issues affecting the growth of the industry. Far from acting upon it they are not even coming forth to hear upon the industry's representation on this," Nath lamented.
He insisted that existence of a core committee with proper representation from stakeholders is important to ensure that the leadership is active on issue based agenda than mere lip service.
The task force recommendations had come as a huge reprieve to the industry, as it has touched based with some of the pertinent issues faced by the sector. Medical device industry has been demanding withdrawal of concessional duty on imports to support domestic manufacturing in the country, as this tax structure has been negatively affecting the interest of domestic manufacturers. Similarly they have also been fighting for appropriate regulations for the sector for addressing issues promptly, along with setting up of separate department for medical devices under the ministry of healthcare products or ministry of life sciences.
Nath said that apart from this, the Centre should also take requisite steps to enforce maximum retail price (MRP) on units packs to ensure that the consumers rights are protected and that they are not fleeced by the MNCs. Industry is also insistent on reviewing the foreign direct investment (FDI) policy, as they strongly feel that to protect the interest of the domestic player it is essential to allow only greenfield projects.