The Union Budget 2026, presented on 1st february 2026, by the Honourable Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, places strong emphasis on strenghtening india’s healthcare ecosystem. The ministry of health and family welfare has been allocated a total of 1,06,530.42 crores of funds for this purpose, reflecting an 10% increase over the previous years revised estimates. The budget focuses on affordability, innovation and capacity building across healthcare and pharmaceuticals.
To improve affordability, the government has fully exempted basic customs duty on 17 essential cancer drugs and extended import duty exemptions to medicines for seven additional rare diseases, easing financial burdens on patients. Further relief comes from the reduction of tax collected at source (TCS) under the liberalised remittance scheme for medical treatment from 5% to 2%
Innovation receives a major boost through the launch of the “biopharma shakti” initiative with an outlay of 10,000 crore over five years to position India as a global hub for biologics and biosimilars.
The budget also proposes establishing three new nipers (National Institute for Pharmaceuticals), upgrading seven existing institutes, creating 1000 accredited clinical trial sites and strengthening the CDSCO (Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation) to align with global regulatory standards.
Medical education is another priority, with continued plans to add 75,000 medical seats over five years and funding announced for the three new AIIMS(All India Institute of Medical Sciences) to enhance tertiary healthcare access across the country.
The biggest medical tourism initiative in the 2026 budget is a new scheme to support states in establishing five regional medical tourism hubs, including ATUSH centres, medical value travel, facilitation services, advanced diagnostics, post-treatment care and rehabilitation units.
