Fact Check: Has the Centre proposed a 5% tax on healthcare in Union Budget 2023?

Press Information Bureau (PIB) has shared a viral claim that Central government has proposed a 5% tax on healthcare in Union Budget 2023-24. Taking to Twitter, PIB shared a post featuring claim that new proposal of 'misery tax' will hugely affect middle class and poor. 

Part of said proposal res that if patients undergo heart surgery, y will be charged between Rs 5,000-10,000 or more and this would exceed to Rs 20,000 due to service tax even if surgery fails. 

PIB rubbishes claims on healthcare tax

PIB has called claims of healthcare tax fake and clarified that notification being circulated on Twitter is over a dece old. "A tweet claims that central government has proposed a 5% tax on healthcare in recent Budget. This claim is fake," re tweet by PIB. " letter attached with tweet is from year 2011 and is being shared out of context."

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, on February 1, presented Union Budget 2023 and allocated Rs 89,155 crore to health sector, out of which Rs 86,175 crore was allocated to Department of Health and Family Welfare, and Rs 2,980 crore to department of health research. 

fake letter was shared by TMC Rajya Sabha MP Jawahar Sircar who demanded removal of said tax but later apologised after getting debunked. "PIB takes extreme delight in declaring this tweet as fake without mentioning that it is an old plea me years ago, not relevant now. It was sent to me by several activists, including a very respectable senior retired IAS officer. But since it is not a current letter, I’m sorry," he tweeted.