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:
- Health and Wellbeing
- Physical & Financial Capital, and Infrastructure
- Inclusive Development for Aspirational India
- Reinvigorating Human Capital
- Innovation and R&D
- 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:
- 5 operational toll roads worth Rs. 5,000 crore being transferred to the NHAIInvIT
- Transmission assets worth Rs. 7,000 crore to be transferred to the PGCILInvIT
- Dedicated Freight Corridor assets to be monetized by Railways, for operations and maintenance, after commissioning
- Next lot of Airports to be monetized for operations and management concession
- Other core infrastructure assets to be rolled out under the Asset Monetization Programme:
- Oil and Gas Pipelines of GAIL, IOCL and HPCL
- AAI Airports in Tier II and III cities
- Other Railway Infrastructure Assets
- Warehousing Assets of CPSEs such as Central Warehousing Corporation and NAFED
- Sports Stadiums
Source: PIB – Continue to read Union Budget 2021-2022