National Human Rights Commission Urges Government to Drop Idea of Service Tax on Healthcare
NOW it is almost certain – the new adventure of Service Tax on healthcare proposed in the 2011 Budget will go to the mortuary.
The National Human Rights Commission in a statement released yesterday said,
"It has come to the notice of the Commission through media reports that the Government of India proposes to introduce a five per cent service tax on healthcare services thereby bringing the diagnostic services and hospitals having twenty five beds or more with centralized air conditioner system in the tax net.
It is also reported that the excise duty on the medicines is proposed to be increased from four to five per cent which may make the medicines costlier hurting the common man. In addition to this, for the first time, the traditional medicines are also proposed to be brought within the ambit of excise duty.
There are also media reports quoting a recent WHO report on financial health systems that millions of people plunge into poverty every year due to illness and catastrophic medical bills.
In this backdrop, the National Human Rights Commission hopes that the Government may not go ahead with any such proposals which shall affect the healthcare to the common man. The Commission is of the view that any tax, adversely affecting the human rights of the poor and the needy may not be imposed."
Apart from the NHRC , Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's surgeon Dr Ramakant Panda and renowned cardiologist Devi Shetty have strongly opposed the proposal to impose service tax on healthcare services.
It is indeed difficult for the FM to ignore the suggestions from such hallowed sources.