KARACHI: Experts representing several healthcare organisations unanimously demanded that the government withdraw the budget proposals to tax medical imports and private sector hospitals including charitable health facilities, describing it as a direct attack on citizens’ fundamental right to healthcare.

The experts belonging to the Pakistan Islamic Medical Association (PIMA), Pakistan Eye Bank Society (PEBS), Pakistan Association of Cardiovascular and Thoracic Surgeons (PACTS), Pakistan Medical Association and Private Hospitals and Clinics Association (PHCA) were speaking at a press conference held at the PMA House on Friday.

Sharing their concerns, the speakers said that the ultimate victim of this ‘unfair’ taxation would be the poor and marginalised people as health facilities would either pass on this financial burden to patients by increasing cost of their services or shut down their operations altogether.

They reminded the government that all segments of society, including the private sector health facilities, had been hit hard by record-high inflation and devaluation of the rupee over the past two years and operating under immense financial pressures, while struggling to provide quality healthcare at affordable cost.

Healthcare experts say the poor and marginalised will be the ‘ultimate victim of unfair’ taxation

“The private health sector hospitals including the charitable health facilities are a lifeline to millions of Pakistanis and the proposal to impose 15 per cent sales tax would have a devastating impact on the ability of these institutions to provide affordable and accessible healthcare,” said PMA Secretary General Dr Abdul Ghafoor Shoro.

He urged the government to control the extravagant expenditures instead of penalising the private sector for providing essential services to the people.

Prof Hasnat Sharif, senior cardiologist at the Aga Khan University Hospital, said the Pakistan Society of Interventional Cardiology and PACTS had written letters of appeals to the prime minister and the finance minister to look into the matter that could lead to a public health crisis.

He shared that medical devices, particularly those related to cardiac surgery, vascular surgery, thoracic surgery, cardiology and cardiac electrophysiology had historically been exempted from sales tax.

These essential medical items fell under the category of life-saving equipment.

“Under the proposed budget, these life-saving items would be subjected to a total sales tax exposure of 22 per cent. Over 60 per cent of these medical items are procured by government institutions,” he said, adding that public sector institutions had started facing shortage of medical supplies from multinational companies/vendors.

Dr Qazi Wasiq of PEBS and Dr Abdullah Muttaqi of PIMA said the taxes would divert resources away from patient care towards paying government taxes, regretting that stakeholders were not included in consultation over budget.

“It is a betrayal of the trust placed in the government to uplift the weak and the needy. We again call upon the authorities to rescind this decision and demonstrate their commitment to the welfare of the people,” Dr Wasiq said.

Published in Dawn, June 22nd, 2024