Taxing issues

It is good to see that the present government intends to provide adequate medical facilities to the people of the country. But unfortunately, despite the fact that there are least duties/taxes on the import of medical equipment, one has to pay more than 30 percent duty, sales tax and some other charges on the import of brand new medical machinery which makes the landed cost very high. This also seems to open the door for the import of second-hand medical apparatus which is basically discarded or phased out in the developed countries and which finds its way into our country through various means. That is why one can find many well-known hospitals using refurbished/preowned medical equipment which may not give a very accurate diagnosis because of its age or may be due to absence of latest clinical software and hardware. For example, a PM (Permanent Magnet) MRI's image quality/resolution reduces with time due to the deterioration of the magnet with the lapse of a number of years which in my opinion may provide inaccurate diagnosis in case of using old PM MRI. I suggest that the government should give total exemption of duties, sales tax etc on the import of medical apparatus as it would trickle down into providing better and modern medical facilities to the ordinary people of Pakistan, and the government would also not lose much revenue because the overall ratio of such apparatus is much lesser compared to all the imports in the country. Many eminent hospitals in Pakistan already have such exemption from the government and this across the board exemption for every importer will boost the country's overall health level.

M Asif

Karachi