NEW DELHI, Dec 24: A parliamentary committee has pointed to the ”steady decline” in the health sector witnessed over the past few years in real terms at constant prices, saying it fell far short of the target of 2.5 per cent of the GDP by 2024-25.
According to the report, released here recently by the Public Accounts Committee (PAC), stepping up investment in public healthcare was vital for sustaining India’s economic growth.
“Though the government had set a high target of raising health spending to 2.5 per cent of GDP by 2024-25 in the National Health Policy, 2017, the panel found that actual spends on public health care in Union Budget 2017-18 was merely .29 per cent of GDP and ”did not instill much confidence”.
The committee report said it was amazed to note the assertion of the department that Central allocation for health had been increased. It reminded the Health Secretary that during his deposition before the panel on March 30, 2015 in connection with examination of demand for grants (’15-16) he had submitted that an allocation of Rs 24,549-crore had been made in Budget Estimates ’15-16 which was less than for ’13-14 provision of Rs 30,000-crore but more or less on the same level as the Revised Estimates of ’14-15 allocation of Rs 24,400-crore, elaborating further that this cut should be seen in the context of the 14th Finance Commission recommendation whereby the share of state governments in Central taxes has been increased from 32 per cent to 42 per cent and that the cut in the share of the Central Government in Central taxes had translated into cuts in various sectors including health sector.
If the goal of public health spending of 2.5 per cent of GDP was to be achieved, 1 per cent of this would need to come from Central expenditure.
”However, the ’17-18 allocation is not even one-third of that target,” it noted and recommended that central public funding of the sector should be overhauled with substantial hike in outlay in real terms.
”This exposes the hollowness of the Department assertion that the central allocation has increased,” and in view of swelling tax coffers over the past three decades, the panel was of the opinion that the rise was not commensurate with the net tax revenue with a current tax-GDP ratio of 17 per cent of GDP.
Without mincing words, it told the department that it was evident that its reply ”has not been formulated with due diligence.” However, the report stated that being a federal structure, it was aware that the goal of increasing public spending on health to 2.5 per cent of GDP would not be possible without the active involvement of the State Governments.
The panel recommended that the Government should make an assessment as to how much the Centre and states would need to raise their respective health spending to achieve the target of 2.5 per cent of GDP and meet the target within a designated timeline.
”The Committee would therefore advise the Department to carry out rigorous analysis of the overall trend of budget allocation for the health sector before furnishing its replies to the Committee and desist from skirting the crux of the issue raised by the Committee.”
The Committee demanded that it would like to be apprised of the the hike in the total budget envelope for the sector since ’13-14 year-wise in real terms at constant ’11-12 prices after adjusting for inflation.
The panel favoured imposition of ‘sin taxes’ on harmful products such as tobacco, alcohol and that the revenues generated should be used for financing health programmes and not be directed into the general revenue pool. (UNI)
Trending Now
E-Paper
Follow our WhatsApp channel