Health sector faces rise in tax
The government’s proposed imposition of five per cent service tax on treatment in private hospitals, paid either by individuals, insurance companies or firms has been strongly criticised by the healthcare industry as well as the public at large.
Reacting to the move, Apollo Hospitals executive director-operations Sangita Reddy said that bringing the hospitals sector under services tax would work adversely for the consumer as they would end up paying this tax.
“A majority of the consumers pay from their own pocket as only 14 per cent are covered by insurance. Adding service tax will be a heavy burden on them,” Mr Reddy explained.
The CEO Sanjeev K. Chaudhury of Super Religare Laboratories was equally critical of this additional taxation. “While the burden of this levy goes to the customers and patients, the anomaly is that the services of accredited and quality rated labs will become more expensive in eyes of the consumers relative to the small street labs,” Mr Chaudhury said.
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