Centre to rectify error in treatment payment note

‘Payer’ appropriate term for those making the payment: EY

The Finance Ministry issued a corrigendum notification late Monday night to enable cash payments of more than ₹2 lakh for treatment of COVID-19 patients’ treatment, hours after assuring the Delhi High Court that an error in its May 7 notification to permit the same shall be rectified. As per the notification that was issued last Friday after a petition was filed in the court, cash payments were allowed till May 31, provided the hospitals or health care providers obtained the Aadhaar or PAN details of the patients and the ‘payee’ and the relationship between the patient and the ‘payee’. Since ‘payee’ refers to the person being paid and not the person paying the bill, the notification had not had the intended effect yet. The government’s counsel in the case informed the High Court that the word ‘payee’ shall be corrected.