Budget 2024: MTaI welcomes reduction of custom duty on X ray machine components

New Delhi: The Medical Technology Association of India (MTaI) believes that the Union Budget 2024 is a pragmatic one. The leading association of global medical technology companies has welcomed the reduction of custom duty on X ray machine components.

Sharing his post budget reaction, Pavan Choudary, Chairman, MTaI said, “The budget harnesses both the domestic and international currents to optimally forge the path ahead. This ambition is logical as India has 18% of the world’s population but only 5% of the world’s wealth and technology. The West and Japan together have 15% of the world’s population but have 70% of the world’s wealth and technology! So, the policy makers haven’t ignored such a big reservoir of Capital and technology and that is why the emphasis on FDI facilitation. Coming to MedTech, it is FDI which brings most of the investment in the sector and it scaled a new high of USD 502 million in 2023.

“As healthcare skilling benefits substantially from the government’s overall emphasis on skilling, this is a welcome focus area too. Healthcare skilling helps us tap the lucrative global market as well. Currently a whooping 24% of foreign workforce in healthcare in the world is from India! And the government targets exporting 300,000 Healthcare Workers (including doctors, nurses, technicians) annually. Train in India for the world, needs international MedTech’s engagement and we stand ready to provide it,” added Choudary.

“Customs duty reduction on finished goods is a pending demand. Even though that has not happened, the reduction of custom duty on X ray machine components is perhaps reflective of the realization that only those products which we can manufacture in the short to mid-term can be protected without triggering adverse unintended consequences. We do hope that tariff barriers on finished MedTech products which are not import substitutable in the short to mid-term, will eventually, come down. This would further patient affordability and foster competition and quality,” concluded Choudary.