The government has deferred a decision on Apollo Hospitals's request to allow it to treat outside patients at its proposed healthcare facility at Nokia's SEZ in Tamil Nadu.
The government had allowed Apollo Hospitals to partner Nokia and set up a hospital on 4,010 square-meter in the non-processing area of the special economic zone with a condition that it cannot entertain "outside patients".
The issue was considered by the inter-ministerial Board of Approval (BoA) last week but no decision was taken, a senior Commerce Ministry official said. "The matter requires larger policy issue and a decision has been deferred," he said.
A final decision regarding the matter would be taken after consultations with different departments, including revenue, he said. The proposed hospital was allowed to cater only to patients from within zone, adjoining SEZs and trauma cases arising of accidents on highways.
However, Apollo Hospitals, in its request to the BoA stated that the restriction on activities of its proposed 60-bed hospital "interferes with their professional medical ethics" and asked for waiver of the conditions.
Apollo Hospitals joined the Nokia SEZ at Sriperumbudur as a co-developer in August 2009. Nokia has set up the zone for manufacturing and assembling of electronics, telecommunication, IT hardware and software.
The Apollo Hospitals unit in the Nokia SEZ would be entitled for a host of tax benefits such as exemption of income tax, central sale tax and service tax.
