MTaI bats for tax breaks for Research and Development centres

MUMBAI: Medical Technology Association of India (MTaI) urged the government to provide a tax holiday to medical device Research and Development centres under the transfer pricing act to boost investment in innovation-based in-house capabilities centres and growth of the industry.

In its pre-budget recommendations for Union-Budget (2018-19), MTaI said, "The government needs to provide tax holiday to medical device R&D centres under the transfer pricing act to boost investment in high innovation based in-house capabilities centres."

"We also demand tax incentives for the industry for developing global patents from India and tax deduction on income made by individuals or a company for rewards earned on patent development or licensing of patents," it said.

MTaI further requested that Safe Harbour guidelines be provided for pharmaceutical companies who are manufacturing and exporting the product as contract manufacturer/ loan licensee.

There are many companies dealing in manufacturing and export of generic pharmaceutical drugs under contract manufacturing arrangement. There are major litigations on account of margins that the contract manufacturer should have earned by transfer pricing cell of income tax department.

The Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) has notified the Safe Harbour rule covering sector like IT/ITES, KPO and auto component manufacturers prescribing desirable margins to avoid litigations under transfer pricing regulations.

Considering that weighted deductions and tax holidays are being phased out, MTaI recommended that the corporate tax rates should also be reduced for large companies in line with the government's objective to widen the tax base and make these companies globally competitive.

MTaI also raised concerns over high custom duties on medical devices. There was a significant increase ranging 50-60 percent on medical devices. This has adversely impacted costs for these products in India where the government agenda is to provide low-cost healthcare available to masses.

This is especially important in view of the fact that a significant 67-70 percent of healthcare spends is through private spending and there exists a wide gap in local manufacturing of high-quality medical devices.

The association has also urged the government to reduce Minimum Alternative Tax (MAT) rate to 15 percent.