Healthcare expenditure of patients – who rely frequently on high-end hospitals for advanced, international-level treatment facilities – may rise from the upcoming FY25 as import duties on treatment machinery and equipment are likely to witness a significant increase.
Such healthcare facilities are currently enjoying import facility of treatment machinery and equipment at 1 per cent, and they do not have to clear any duty, VAT and supplementary duty other than this reduced rate. However, the duty may rise to 10 per cent from FY25.
Finance ministry officials involved in the formulation of the budget say referral hospitals – in which patients are referred to by other healthcare centres for better or specialised treatment, as these are better equipped and have specially trained physicians – currently import medical equipment at a reduced or nominal duty, but charge a large amount for their services.
Therefore, they made tidy profits, but patients and their families are not getting reduced treatment costs. The 10 per cent hike in duty for this specific sector will help Bangladesh boost revenue collection.
This move will not raise treatment costs, instead, their profits will be reduced, officials claim.
At the existing rate, such hospitals can import more than 200 types of medical machinery and equipment, including blood bank refrigerators, hydrogen peroxide gas steriliser machines, X-ray drier machines, Printer for USG or Echocardiography, CCD Camera for cardiac surgery, USG machines, ECG machine and MRI – 1.5T whole-body TIM.
Hospitals currently enjoy this facility under some conditions.
The condition mandates that any importer must be a referral hospital, meaning it shall be a mono-disciplinary or multi-disciplinary healthcare facility. The number of seats must be at least 100 for a mono-disciplinary hospital, and at least 150 seats for a multi-disciplinary hospital.
Such a hospital shall have the capacity to use sufficient and ultramodern medical machinery and equipment, and these shall be maintained properly.
The hospital shall be an international standard specialised hospital which is capable of providing advanced treatment facilities with research-related facilities and having the capacity to operate research activities.
Previously, the government provided a reduced import facility for such hospitals in FY23.
Besides, there was another provision for referral hospitals that used to keep 5 per cent of their seats reserved for free-of-cost admission of poor and low-income patients. Under the condition, such hospitals enjoyed duty-free facilities for the import of medical appliances.
After one year of its introduction in FY17, the government scrapped the provision through the Finance Act 2016, following allegations from the hospitals' authorities of undue pressure on them for granting the facility, and levied a 1 per cent duty on the medical equipment imports.
There were allegations that the hospitals were pressured to provide the free-of-cost facility to influential ones instead of the deserving poor, officials said, adding that many luxury hospitals faced such unusual pressure as the provision of 5 per cent free bed was in place against the duty-free facility.
The country's referral hospitals are BIRDEM, National Heart Foundation, Evercare Hospital, Square, Labaid, United Hospital, Zainul Haque Sikder Women's Medical College and Hospital, Salauddin specialised hospital, Ad-din, Delta, Green Life, Enam Medical, Sumona hospital, Monsur Ali Medical College, Dr Sirajul Islam, Care specialised hospital, Samorita, Gazi Medical College, and Ali Hospital, Khawaja Yunous Ali Medical College, Ibrahim Iqbal Memorial Hospital, Jalalabad Rajib-Rabeya medical, and Bangabandhu Memorial Hospital.
