Medical device makers write to FinMin; urge to curb 80% import dependence

With days to go for the interim Budget, the Association of Indian Medical Device Industry (Aimed) has urged the Centre to address the soaring import bill at over ₹63,200 crore.

In a letter to the Union Finance Minister, Nirmala Sitharaman, the Association called for measures to curb the over 80 per cent import dependence.

“It’s disheartening to note that imports are still on an increasing uptrend of over 21 percent over the last 12 months at ₹61,000 crore compared to ₹50,000 crore in the same period of preceding 12 months. Policy makers need to review the steep 33 per cent increase in imports from the USA (the dominant exporting country to India) of ₹10,858 crore over ₹8,186 crore in 2021-22, Germany up at ₹6,188 crore from ₹4,855 crore in 2022, by a steep 27 per cent. Imports from the Netherlands also increased by 20 per cent to ₹3,552 crore in 2022-23 from ₹2,956 crore in 2021-22, whereas imports from China increased by 11 per cent at ₹10,384 crore in 2022-23 from ₹9,374 crore in 2021-22 and Singapore by 15 per cent from ₹4,800 crore to ₹5,520 crore,” said a note from Aimed.

“Unless policies of consumer electronics and mobile phone manufacturing by levy of nominal 15 per cent duty are replicated to Medical Devices, we will continue to be more than 80 per cent import dependent at zero to 7.5 per cent duty rates. It’s not that we are not competent, in many products India is globally competitive but sadly not in our own country. Also consumers are protected by MRP capping and price controls post monitoring and not by making them dependent on imports at zero duties with MRP at over 10-20 times of Imports Landed price,” said Rajiv Nath, Aimed Forum Coordinator.

Aimed proposed a customs duty increase to a nominal 10-15 per cent and a predictable tariff policy. It called for a correction of the Inverted Duty by levying a health cess of 5 per cent custom duty on the remaining medical devices (this was not earlier applied to all HS Codes). Cess could be used for Ayushman Bharat, the note said. And a trade margin capping by monitoring MRP of Imports (if over 10-20 times of CIF).

The Indian medical devices industry is projected to grow from $12 billion to $50 billion by 2030, reducing import reliance to 35 per cent and boosting exports to $18 billion. But that required supporting policies, the note added. The Hindu Business Line