Centre slashes healthcare spending by Rs 33,809 crore
The Budget estimates that the requirement for vaccination would be lesser in the coming fiscal year with many being vaccinated
Chennai: The Union Budget 2022-23 has estimated medical and public health expenditure in 2022-23 would be lesser by Rs 33,809 crore compared to the previous budget, owing to the lower requirement of funds for the vaccination programme.
The government expects that the expenditure towards medical and public health in 2022-23 could be Rs 41,011 crore against Rs 74,820 crore in 2021-22 — this outlay is Rs 33,809 crore less than the last year’s budgetary provision.
The Budget estimates that the requirement for vaccination would be lesser in the coming fiscal year with a large share of adult population already being vaccinated for the Covid-19 disease.
“Medical and public health covers medical education, medical care and prevention of diseases. The expenditure towards the prevention of diseases, which mainly consists of vaccination drives, had gone up in the current fiscal year due to the Covid-19 vaccination. This is assumed to be lower as a large number of adults are already covered,” said Sanjay Pande, executive director, Finsall Networks.
“However, if the budget of the ministry of health and family welfare is higher despite the lower expense on vaccination, the expenditure of other components is expected to be up,” he added.
According to Pande, expenditure towards medical and public health is a key component in the budgetary allocation of the ministry for health and family welfare like Central Government Health Scheme, National Aids Control Organisation and National Health Authority, which runs Ayushman Bharat scheme. The total allocation for the ministry for health and family welfare is Rs 83,000 crore, which is up from Rs 71,268 crore in FY22.
The allocation for central sector schemes and projects are up by around Rs 5,000 crore, centrally sponsored schemes up by around Rs 400 crore, the establishment expenditure of the Centre is Rs 600 crore and other central sector expenditure by around Rs 2,000 crore.
Among the central sector schemes, Pardhan Mantri Swasthya Suraksha Yojana has received higher allocation of Rs 10,000 crore against Rs 7,000 crore in the previous budget.