“It is a stable and reassuring budget that aims not to upset any apple cart coupled with some very good measures such as customs duty exemption on some cancer and lifesaving drugs,” says Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, founder and executive chairperson of Biocon, a leading global biopharmaceutical company from India and a symbol of women entrepreneurship. However, she feels that while the customs duty waiver on imported cancer drugs is a laudable move, benefit on similar lines in terms of GST (Goods and Services Tax) relief should also be provided to indigenously manufactured cancer drugs.
She feels the budget needs to be viewed in the context of India’s complex economy. However, she says, to get a better sense on the next impact and the bang from the budget, it is crucial to read it along with the new Income Tax bill that finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman said would be introduced next week along with a better grasp on the granularity of some of the measures announced in the budget.
Kiran Mazumdar finds the budget having all the right focus with all the right emphasis keeping in mind the poor, youth, farmers and women. The six domains chosen for reforms- taxation; power sector; urban development; mining; financial sector; apart from regulatory reforms.
Those in the middle income salaried class, she feels, should be delighted with lower tax and measures that put more money in their hands.
Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw has been happy that one of her long pending demand to ease availability of lifesaving medicines to those desperately needing them. She is referring to relief for patients, particularly those suffering from cancer, rare diseases and other severe chronic diseases. The finance minister has proposed to add 36 lifesaving drugs and medicines to the list of medicines fully exempted from Basic Customs Duty (BCD). Apart from this, proposed addition of six lifesaving medicines to the list attracting concessional customs duty of 5 per cent. There is also a full exemption and concessional duty applying on the bulk drugs for manufacture these drugs.