The Budget for 2018-19 presented today is both unrealistic and disappointing, at least in parts.
The Finance Minister has said,
"59. We will launch a flagship National Health Protection Scheme to
cover over 10 crore poor and vulnerable families (approximately 50
crore beneficiaries) providing coverage upto 5 lakh rupees per family per
year for secondary and tertiary care hospitalization. This will be the
world’s largest government funded health care programme. Adequate
funds will be provided for smooth implementation of this programme."
How much has been provided for this welcome scheme? Hardly Rs.4,000 crore as mentioned by a Finance Ministry spokesman. If every family claims the entire amount, the amount needed will be Rs.50 lakh crore. If only 10% claim is there, it will be Rs.5 lakh crore. Compare this figure with the total budgeted expenditure of Rs.24.42 lakh crore. This is a good scheme. But funding will be a herculean task. The claims will be routed through public sector insurance companies. This is a recipe for an insurance company to go bankrupt. It is interesting to note that the budget also says three public sector insurance companies will be amalgamated ! The challenge will be to implement this scheme successfully. There is no doubt that the underprivileged deserve such a scheme
The budget is disappointing because even revenue deficits are ballooning. Ideally and as per FRBM Act, there should be no revenue deficit. But what is happening? The budgeted revenue deficit for 2017-18 was 1.9% of GDP. According to Revised Estimates, it is 2.6% It is projected at 2.2% for 2018-19. This is shameful. Revenue Deficit crudely means that GOI is borrowing money to pay, say, salaries to employees. This is not budgeting. This is reckless spending.
The Finance Minister has said,
"59. We will launch a flagship National Health Protection Scheme to
cover over 10 crore poor and vulnerable families (approximately 50
crore beneficiaries) providing coverage upto 5 lakh rupees per family per
year for secondary and tertiary care hospitalization. This will be the
world’s largest government funded health care programme. Adequate
funds will be provided for smooth implementation of this programme."
How much has been provided for this welcome scheme? Hardly Rs.4,000 crore as mentioned by a Finance Ministry spokesman. If every family claims the entire amount, the amount needed will be Rs.50 lakh crore. If only 10% claim is there, it will be Rs.5 lakh crore. Compare this figure with the total budgeted expenditure of Rs.24.42 lakh crore. This is a good scheme. But funding will be a herculean task. The claims will be routed through public sector insurance companies. This is a recipe for an insurance company to go bankrupt. It is interesting to note that the budget also says three public sector insurance companies will be amalgamated ! The challenge will be to implement this scheme successfully. There is no doubt that the underprivileged deserve such a scheme
The budget is disappointing because even revenue deficits are ballooning. Ideally and as per FRBM Act, there should be no revenue deficit. But what is happening? The budgeted revenue deficit for 2017-18 was 1.9% of GDP. According to Revised Estimates, it is 2.6% It is projected at 2.2% for 2018-19. This is shameful. Revenue Deficit crudely means that GOI is borrowing money to pay, say, salaries to employees. This is not budgeting. This is reckless spending.
1 comment:
When private investments are down everybody expected public investment push. Yes they have rationalised subsidies, seem to have avoided headline corruption, big savings in crude... But I really can't get where these funds go? Even at the end of 4 years, there is no big ticket projects, no river linking project, no Sagar mala project, no inland waterways project. Had they launched atleast one of the above, it would have triggered an uptrend in the economy. There were talks during 15-16 to make Piyush Goyal the FM. Modi should have went ahead with that move.
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