“Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced a new healthcare scheme–the Pradhan Mantri Atma Nirbhar Swasth Bharat Yojana–with a Rs 64,180-crore ($8.7 billion) outlay. The Centre’s allocation to the health ministry for 2020-21 was Rs 67,112 crore ($9.18 billion). This new scheme appears to make a 100% increase in the entire health allocation.
However, Sitharaman also said that this would be operationalised over six years. And the detailed budget document does not have any mention of this scheme for 2021-22. So it is unclear how much of this money would make its way into any health spending this year.
The government also announced an unprecedented outlay for healthcare, Rs 2,23,846 crore ($30.6 billion), which the finance minister said is an increase of 137% over the 2020-21 budget.
However, although conventionally the outlay on healthcare has referred to the outlay to the health ministry alone, the government this time has presented the healthcare budget in a more intersectional manner: It has combined many existing heads in some way related to healthcare even if not managed by the health ministry. In other words, no new budget-heads of money have been created for healthcare, but already existing ones have been added up, which gives this increased figure of 137%”
Read full article here:
https://www.indiaspend.com/budget/despite-pandemic-health-budget-sees-little-real-increase-721259
