Budget speech has been presented in parliament by the Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, yesterday. In his speech he said the Government intends to usher in a policy regime that would bring the desired growth, lower inflation, sustained level of external sector balance and prudent policy stance.
Reacting on the budget announcement, Meghnath Roy Chowdhury, managing director of Cordlife Sciences India, quoted,''The budget well articulates the key challenges faced by the Indian economy and does not hurry to tackle it all at once at the word go. The speech showcases the contemporary vision of change and aims to take sequential steps in time without losing sight of the macro goal. While the Finance Minister has attempted to discourage use of anti-health products by imposing additional duty, nothing significant was present for pro health companies and healthcare sector in general.''
''We welcome initiatives like sanitized rivers, clean cities and provision of safe drinking water. Rural population are also set to receive benefits from telemedicine and health insurance provisions in the budget. The opening up of 4 additional AIIMS and 12 government medical colleges is a step to ensure enhancement in the value of medical training and should aid in bridging the scarcity of qualified doctors in India,'' he said further.
''We wish the speech should have shed some more clarity on retrospective taxation provisions and litigations already existing and not just about taking caution on ordinarily changing policies retrospectively which creates a fresh liability,'' he exclaimed.
