At first look, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley’s first full budget has turned out be a case of great expectations falling short of reality.
Expressing disappointment at the Budget’s allocation for the pharmaceutical sector in India, Utkarsh Palnitkar, Head of Advisory and national leader of pharma sector, KPMG in India commented, “Like most other sectors, the pharma sector also had high expectations, more so from the perspective of Make in India campaign where the pharma sector has been a shining example of India’s growing dominance. It was expected that specific impetus be given to the pharma manufacturing through announcements of clusters and concession related to taxation related to manufacturing as well as the irritants such as service tax on clinical trials. As such other than the overall announcement of ‘Health for All’ and creation of NIPER in three states, the budget does not provide any specific impetus to the pharma sector.”
It remains to be seen if further study of the budget yields any good news for the pharma sector.
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