India’s healthcare sector requires more allocation of funds for better research and to provide better facilities to a vast number of people, said experts on Monday, a day ahead of the Union Budget.

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman is expected to present the Union Budget 2024 on July 23.

Currently, India’s public healthcare spending remains low with just 1.6 to 1.8 per cent of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP). But a higher allocation is needed, said the experts.

“The healthcare industry is still awaiting the government’s promise of spending 2.5 per cent of GDP on healthcare. We hope this will happen in this budget,” Dr Harsh Mahajan, Chair of the FICCI Health Services Committee, Founder & Chief Radiologist, Mahajan Imaging Labs, told IANS.

Stressing the need to increase focus on diagnostic and preventive healthcare, he urged the government to “minimise customs duty on life-saving equipment, on diagnostic reagents and machines.”

“If we are to have a 5 trillion economy in the next few years, we need a healthy India, and focus by the government on the healthcare sector is a must.”

He also called on the government to consider another long-standing demand of the industry on the “Goods and Services Taxes (GST) which healthcare providers pay but do not get back any input tax credits, and which ultimately increases patients’ cost.”

Dr D. S. Rana, Chairman Trust Society & Nephrologist, Sir Ganga Ram Hospital, also called for “more allocation of funds in the healthcare sector to focus on providing healthcare — whether primary, secondary or tertiary care — at the doorsteps of the rural population.”

He also emphasised the need for the “right maximum retail price for drugs” to fight counterfeits.

Further, Anubha Taneja Mukherjee, Member Secretary of Thalassemia Patient Advocacy Group, urged the government to set up a national-level control programme for thalassemia — a blood disorder — on the lines of sickle cell anaemia.

“India is the thalassemia capital of the world. The government should definitely consider increasing spending on thalassemia for the prevention, management, and treatment,” she told IANS.

Stressing the need for ensuring blood safety for the patients whose survival depends on blood transfusion every fortnight, Mukherjee called on the government to “increase spending on new technologies like the nucleic acid test, which can help prevent transfusion-linked infections like HIV.”

Sudarshan Jain, Secretary General of Indian Pharmaceutical Alliance, stressed the need for “high investment and research” in the pharma sector.

“We should work towards rationalising GST rates for the pharma sector,” he told IANS.

Poonam Muttreja, Executive Director of Population Foundation Of India, told IANS about the need for “investing generously for the education, skilling, employment and well-being of the 370 million youth of the country.”

Muttreja suggested boosting higher education for women, vocational training, and leadership opportunities to leverage gender dividends.

She also called for developing tailor-made health services to cater to the needs of the ageing population in the country.