The Union government’s Budget 2014 is expected to highlight new healthcare policy framework which would be rolled out in the next 90 days that is by October this year.

The budget to be presented by the Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on July 10, 2014 would place preventive healthcare, innovative technology solutions and R&D on priority area, going by the scores of recommendations put forth by the industry lobby of pharmaceuticals, biotechnology and hospitals sector.

The new government is keen to give a fresh impetus to the healthcare in the country focusing not just on the economically backward category but also the growing middle class segment too. The current health insurance schemes are in all probability reworked and this is also based on the initial concepts that Prime Minister Narendra Modi has presented online via his tweet. The new government is also likely to come out with a comprehensive healthcare services at the government hospitals and private medical centres.

Going by the focuses of the government so far in the adoption of information technology that enable real-time communication modes via mobiles and tweets, the thrust will further push for use of technology in healthcare to drive in transparency and efficiency. Such technology also will speed up maintenance of patient history database that could be accessed by the healthcare providers in any part of the country. In fact, a panel of specialists at the Karnataka government hospitals like Victoria, Lady Curzon Bowring and Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Chest Diseases see that such a move would be the biggest benefit to the patients.

A step ahead would be the extensive use of telemedicine to ensure reach of patients in the remote and inaccessible areas in the country. Although the telemedicine in India is credited to the Narayana Health Group in its erstwhile title as Narayana Hrudayalaya, the government of India is now working to expand the service.

Since the government has already indicated its intent to encourage indigenous manufacture to control the Current Account Deficit (CAD), it would push for medical devices production and woo the industry with a slew of rebates. Going by the expertise in India for the same, the government in all probability would consent for local manufacture for medical and diagnostic, said Dr. Shama Bhat, chairman and managing director, Bhat Biotech adding that, imported raw materials are expensive for Indian companies and therefore government should rationalize the custom duties.

“Companies must be encouraged to start their manufacturing operations in India. However the current duty and tax structure acts as a deterrent for local manufacturing”, Sujay Shetty, leader pharma & life sciences, PwC India told Pharmabiz.

Further tax rebates are needed to encourage green manufacturing services. On the manpower profit, there is need to provide grants to hire trainees for skill development programs and also 50 percent matching grant for overseas training, he added.

The PwC healthcare chief also sees the government could announce the total exemption of excise and customs duty on all lifesaving medicines like anti-cancer, anti-AIDS etc, contract research organizations (CRO) involved in genomic services, consumables and capital goods of biotechnology industry, import duty for industrial biotechnology sector, raw materials used for manufacturing lifesaving drugs, diagnostic kits for infectious diseases, besides exemption of all taxes (VAT, CST) on pediatric vaccines.