Parliamentary panel slams Centre for underutilizing MedTech budget
The central government’s plan to reduce the import dependence on medical devices, by promoting domestic manufacturing hubs in various parts of the country, is materialising at a slow pace, despite budgetary allocations in the last four years, the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Chemicals and Fertilisers has observed. Of the four states that were cleared for financial assistance to create Common Infrastructure Facilities (CIF), Himachal Pradesh has withdrawn from the Scheme of Promotion of Medical Device Parks, the administrative department of the scheme—Department of Pharmaceuticals (DoP)—has informed the Standing Committee headed by All India Trinamool Congress MP Azad Kirti Jha.
In its latest report presented to the Parliament in November 2024, the Standing Committee points out that only ₹90 lakh was the actual expenditure during the years 2022-23 and 2023-24 under the scheme, even though the government had budgeted ₹60 crore for the scheme in 2021-22, ₹32.93 crore in 2022-23, ₹200 crore in 2023-24, and ₹150 crore in 2024-25.
Under the scheme for the Promotion of Medical Device Parks, financial assistance is provided for the creation of Common Infrastructure Facilities (CIF) in the selected medical device Parks promoted by state governments. The total financial outlay of the scheme is ₹400 crore, and the tenure of the Scheme is from 2020-21 to 2024-25. The financial assistance by the centre is subject to a maximum limit of ₹100 crore per park or 70% of the project cost of CIF (90% in the case of Northeastern states and Hilly states), whichever is less.
The Scheme had received proposals from 16 state governments. However, only four states—Uttar Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Madhya Pradesh, and Himachal Pradesh—had gotten the Centre’s approval. Since Himachal withdrew from the scheme, DoP is now awaiting a proposal from another state. The committee has asked the department to initiate concrete steps to expeditiously set up the Medical Devices Parks in the remaining states.
India depends on imports of medical devices to an extent of 70% of its domestic requirements. The size of the Indian medical devices market was estimated at $11 billion in 2020, projected to grow to $50 billion by 2030. Fortune India
