Key Highlights of Union Budget 2021-22

Union Budget 2021-22

Union Minister of Finance and Corporate Affairs Smt. Nirmala Seetharaman Presenting the first ever digital Union Budget 2021-2022

Ministry of Finance

01 FEB 2021 2:07PM

Presenting the first ever digital Union Budget, Union Minister of Finance and Corporate Affairs Smt. Nirmala Seetharaman stated that India’s fight against COVID-19 continues into 2021 and that this moment in history, when the political, economic, and strategic relations in the post-COVID world are changing, is the dawn of a new era – one in which India is well-poised to truly be the land of promise and hope.

The key highlights of the Union Budget 2021-22 are as follows:

6 pillars of the Union Budget 2021-22:

1. Health and Wellbeing
2. Physical & Financial Capital, and Infrastructure
3. Inclusive Development for Aspirational India
4. Reinvigorating Human Capital
5. Innovation and R&D
6. Minimum Government and Maximum Governance

Health and Wellbeing

• Rs. 2,23,846 crore outlay for Health and Wellbeing in BE 2021-22 as against Rs. 94,452 crore in BE 2020-21 – an increase of 137%
• Focus on strengthening three areas: Preventive, Curative, and Wellbeing
• Steps being taken for improving health and wellbeing:

Vaccines

• Rs. 35,000 crore for COVID-19 vaccine in BE 2021-22
• The Made-in-India Pneumococcal Vaccine to be rolled out across the country, from present 5 states – to avert 50,000 child deaths annually

Health Systems

• Rs. 64,180 crore outlay over 6 years for PM AatmaNirbhar Swasth Bharat Yojana – a new centrally sponsored scheme to be launched, in addition to NHM
• Main interventions under PM AatmaNirbhar Swasth Bharat Yojana:
• National Institution for One Health
• 17,788 rural and 11,024 urban Health and Wellness Centers
• 4 regional National Institutes for Virology
• 15 Health Emergency Operation Centers and 2 mobile hospitals
• Integrated public health labs in all districts and 3382 block public health units in 11 states
• Critical care hospital blocks in 602 districts and 12 central institutions
• Strengthening of the National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), its 5 regional branches and 20 metropolitan health surveillance units
• Expansion of the Integrated Health Information Portal to all States/UTs to connect all public health labs
• 17 new Public Health Units and strengthening of 33 existing Public Health Units
• Regional Research Platform for WHO South-East Asia Region
• 9 Bio-Safety Level III laboratories

Nutrition

Mission Poshan 2.0 to be launched:

• To strengthen nutritional content, delivery, outreach, and outcome
• Merging the Supplementary Nutrition Programme and the Poshan Abhiyan
• Intensified strategy to be adopted to improve nutritional outcomes across 112 Aspirational Districts

Universal Coverage of Water Supply

Rs. 2,87,000 crore over 5 years for Jal Jeevan Mission (Urban) – to be launched with an aim to provide:

• 2.86 crore household tap connections
• Universal water supply in all 4,378 Urban Local Bodies
• Liquid waste management in 500 AMRUT cities

Swachch Bharat, Swasth Bharat

• Rs. 1,41,678 crore over 5 years for Urban Swachh Bharat Mission 2.0
• Main interventions under Swachh Bharat Mission (Urban) 2.0:
• Complete faecal sludge management and waste water treatment
• Source segregation of garbage
• Reduction in single-use plastic
• Reduction in air pollution by effectively managing waste from construction-and-demolition activities
• Bio-remediation of all legacy dump sites

Clean Air

• Rs. 2,217 crore to tackle air pollution, for 42 urban centers with a million-plus population

Scrapping Policy

• Voluntary vehicle scrapping policy to phase out old and unfit vehicles
• Fitness tests in automated fitness centres:
• After 20 years in case of personal vehicles
• After 15 years in case of commercial vehicles

Physical and Financial Capital and Infrastructure

Production Linked Incentive scheme (PLI)

• Rs. 1.97 lakh crore in next 5 years for PLI schemes in 13 Sectors
• To create and nurture manufacturing global champions for an AatmaNirbhar Bharat
• To help manufacturing companies become an integral part of global supply chains, possess core competence and cutting-edge technology
• To bring scale and size in key sectors
• To provide jobs to the youth

Textiles

• Mega Investment Textiles Parks (MITRA) scheme, in addition to PLI:
• 7 Textile Parks to be established over 3 years
• Textile industry to become globally competitive, attract large investments and boost employment generation & exports

Infrastructure

• National Infrastructure Pipeline (NIP) expanded to 7,400 projects:
• Around 217 projects worth Rs. 1.10 lakh crore completed
• Measures in three thrust areas to increase funding for NIP:
• Creation of institutional structures
• Big thrust on monetizing assets
• Enhancing the share of capital expenditure

Creation of institutional structures: Infrastructure Financing

• Rs. 20,000 crore to set up and capitalise a Development Financial Institution(DFI) – to act as a provider, enabler and catalyst for infrastructure financing
• Rs. 5 lakh crore lending portfolio to be created under the proposed DFI in 3 years
• Debt Financing by Foreign Portfolio Investors to be enabled by amending InvITs’ and REITs’ legislations

Big thrust on monetizing assets

• National Monetization Pipeline to be launched
• Important asset monetization measures:

1. 5 operational toll roads worth Rs. 5,000 crore being transferred to the NHAIInvIT
2. Transmission assets worth Rs. 7,000 crore to be transferred to the PGCILInvIT
3. Dedicated Freight Corridor assets to be monetized by Railways, for operations and maintenance, after commissioning
4. Next lot of Airports to be monetized for operations and management concession
5. Other core infrastructure assets to be rolled out under the Asset Monetization Programme:
6. Oil and Gas Pipelines of GAIL, IOCL and HPCL
7. AAI Airports in Tier II and III cities
8. Other Railway Infrastructure Assets
9. Warehousing Assets of CPSEs such as Central Warehousing Corporation and NAFED
10. Sports Stadiums

Source: PIB – Continue to read Union Budget 2021-2022