Business Report :
Women entrepreneurs have emphasized on health, social safety and increasing cooperation of women entrepreneurs in the budget of 2024-25 FY.
Priti Chakraborty, one of the country’s leading women entrepreneurs and Director of FBCCI, said these to The New Nation that three sectors are always important in the national budget.
She said ensuring good health of the citizens is very important, because a healthy nation will advance the country through hard working.
Secondly, nutrition and food assistance should be given to the lower and middle class people.
For ensuring this, the scope of social safety net should be increased. Budget allocation should be increased in this sector, she added.
Thirdly, women entrepreneurs should be supported in creating employment in the country.
That is why the tax-free life expectancy of women needs to be increased. He said that to bring women entrepreneurs into the mainstream of the economy, it would not be right to take more than 10 percent income tax from their total income. Higher taxes may discourage women from investing in businesses. Loans should be given to women on easy terms without burdening them with taxes, she emphasized.
Meanwhile, she said, if this budget is passed without addressing certain portions, all types of medical expenses in private hospitals will be increased.
As a result, the common people are will be at risk of being deprived of proper medical services and treatment.
Besides, the private hospitals have to take the challenges of handling the additional cost due to the tax.
According to public health experts, it will be difficult for private hospitals to ensure good treatment on the one hand and cope with the additional cost pressure on the other. A major crisis is brewing in the medical system. According to them, there has been no major change in the allocation of the health sector in the proposed budget.
However, the import duty pressure on medical devices has increased. This will increase the cost of treatment several times. Health experts feel that the health sector is ‘neglected’ even in the new budget. An analysis of the proposed budget showed that specialized hospitals would have been given the opportunity to import medical devices and equipment at special duty rates. However, this time the import duty of medical equipment and materials used in these hospitals has been proposed to be increased from 1 percent to 10pc.
Besides, the new budget proposed to impose a 5pc import duty on spinal needles used during surgery by creating a new HS code. This will increase the price of this product. Stakeholders say the government’s move will further increase the cost of medical care for critically ill patients. Even specialized hospitals may balk at investment in expansion. Therefore, the duty on import of medical equipment and materials should be withdrawn completely.
