Increase on GST on Hospital Services

In India, the government has started taking the GST, or Goods and Services Tax, which is one of the indirect taxes Indians have to pay whenever we purchase goods or provide services. So yesterday the government revised the GST on Hospital services and increased the tax on Hospital beds.

PC: Pixabay.com

The problem with this step is that the middle-income healthcare seekers or patients will be the most affected. In the last 2 years, the medical cost is a burden for many and it has put a lot of people to go bankrupt too. The Government's decision was to impose a 5% GST on hospital rooms whose rent is above Rs 5000 a day. This will affect the middle-class income groups as quality hospitals will become costlier.

India's medical system price is already inflated because of Covid and other things, and the additional burden will put most Indians worried about the hospital costs. There should be healthcare which should be affordable, safe and accessible to all. But as time passes these all things are taken away from Indians in the name of tax.

With this tax, the hospitals are bound to increase their prices as well as other services will also see a price rise to compensate for other taxes and overall the price of the hospital's bill will increase 5-10%. In the last 2 years, I have seen prices going up like 20-30% and thus this additional tax is a burden.

Staying in a hospital is not a luxury, we do not want to go and stay in a hospital so increasing the GST on beds is bad, to be honest. Most Indians use private hospitals over public healthcare systems because of better facilities but now with the price rise, it will actually increase the cost, to be honest. There should be another way round, to decrease the tax on hospitals but the government seems to be increasing its revenue.

Posted Using LeoFinance ^Beta