Govt. issues clarification on healthcare services tax in Budget

The Central Government has clarified that no proposal to levy a five percent tax on healthcare services has been included in the Union Budget for 2017-18.

The proposal to levy service tax of five percent on all healthcare services was mooted in 2011-12 Budget, but was dropped after stiff opposition.

The Budget was presented by Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on February 1.

Commenting on the budget, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had hailed it as an 'Uttam Budget'.

"The Finance Minister has presented an 'Uttam' Budget, devoted to strengthening the hands of the poor," he had said.

On the other hand, the Congress Party had deemed the budget as lacking credibility.

"This time the projections for the financial year and for the budgetary estimates have been based on the data for six months. Therefore, it completely lacks credibility," Congress leader Anand Sharma had said.