Health and agriculture were the focus of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in its last full budget ahead of the 2019 general elections.
Finance Minister Arun Jaitley announced the launch of National Health Protection Scheme to insure the secondary and tertiary care expenses of 100 million poor families (500 million people) up to Rs 500,000 per family per year.
“It would be the largest healthcare programme in the world,” Jaitley said in his nearly 110-minute bilingual speech.
The current programme--Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana--offers Rs 30,000 cover for poor families.
Jaitley also announced plans to launch 24 new government medical colleges/hospitals across the country.
In a big boost to the farming sector, the finance minister has proposed a minimum support price for all kharif (monsoon) crops at the rate of 150% of the cost of production.
In other big announcements, the FM announced allocation of Rs 2,000 crore to develop agriculture markets, and Rs 500 crore for launching Operation Greens--on the lines of Operation Flood--to address price fluctuations in potato, tomato and onion for the benefit of farmers and consumers.
Agriculture credit has been increased 10% by Rs 1 lakh crore to Rs 11 lakh crore for the next year.
Sounding confident about the growth of the economy, Jaitley said average growth over the last three years has been 7.5% and growth is likely to be 7.2%-7.5% in the second half of 2017-18.
Jaitley said the government has met the divestment target for the current year by raising over Rs 100,000 crore but has scaled down the divestment target to Rs 80,000 crore for 2018-19.
On the budget numbers, Jaitley said the revised expenditure for the current year would be Rs 22.17 lakh crore as against the budget estimate of Rs 21.47 lakh crore.
For salaried tax payers, Jaitley announced the introduction of standard deduction of Rs 40,000, and increase in tax-free income from deposits for senior citizens to Rs 50,000.
Here are the key insights from Jaitley’s budget speech:
India lags its housing, sanitation and rural employment targets, sectors likely to get a push in #budget2018, but govt needs clear strategy & priority for education, health & nutrition. @avani_kapur on what’s needed. https://t.co/UAQRZoMrOn
— IndiaSpend (@IndiaSpend) February 1, 2018
To train more than 1.3mn untrained teachers: @arunjaitley. 1 mn teaching posts vacant, we reported in Dec 2016 #budget2018 https://t.co/udSpIQ7TXc
— IndiaSpend (@IndiaSpend) February 1, 2018
To expand Ujjwala scheme (LPG cylinder subsidy to BPL households, refill at market rate) to 80mn from 50mn: @arunjaitley. At market rate, most HHs never refill. Connections grew 16% yoy in 2016-17 but consumption only by 9.8%, we reported in Oct 2017 https://t.co/98o4AfGoEE
— IndiaSpend (@IndiaSpend) February 1, 2018
7mn formal jobs created: @arunjaitley. Data don't account for job losses after GST rollout, demonetisation in 2017; don't record how many of these jobs formalised versions of informal-sector ones, we reported in Jan 2018 #budget2018 https://t.co/7uC9dk7El7
— IndiaSpend (@IndiaSpend) February 1, 2018
2 crore toilets targeted in 2018-19 under Swachh Bharat-Gramin: FM @arunjaitley. Fact: This will raise total number of toilets from 127 mn to 147 mn--89% of the targetted 164 million toilets under the programme https://t.co/FTnX0WCpCj
— IndiaSpend (@IndiaSpend) February 1, 2018
4,267 unmanned level crossings (ULC) to be eliminated in next 2 yrs: FM. There are 7,701 ULCs on Indian Railways as of Apr 2017. In 2016-17, ULC accidents accounted for 16.23% of all consequential train accidents, 16.33% between Apr-Nov 2017 https://t.co/7nh0uBc2kY
— IndiaSpend (@IndiaSpend) February 1, 2018
Under Smart Cities Mission, 99 cities were to be developed at Rs 2.04 lakh cr. Projects worth Rs 2,350 cr completed, projects worth Rs 20,852 cr under progress: FM. With 3 years gone and 4 yrs to 2022 deadline, projects worth 10% approved, 1.15% completed #budget2018
— IndiaSpend (@IndiaSpend) February 1, 2018
Fiscal deficit has been revised to 3.5%: FM, Fact: Last budget target was set at 3.2% https://t.co/chkt341h5X #Budget2018
— IndiaSpend (@IndiaSpend) February 1, 2018
No increase in MGNREGA allocation in #Budget2018: Rs 55,000 cr allocated--highest since programme's inception in 2006, but equal to revised estimate for 2017-18 https://t.co/nXgxokEQyi
— IndiaSpend (@IndiaSpend) February 1, 2018
In 2016-17, 56% MGNREGA wages delayed, 15% wage seekers did not find work, we reported in Jan 2018 #budget2018 https://t.co/zucgNe4TEq https://t.co/C7Tmz4rJeO
— IndiaSpend (@IndiaSpend) February 1, 2018
Heritage City Development and Augmentation Yojana (HRIDAY) has been taken up in a major way: FM @arunjaitley. Up to Jul'17, only 5.6% of Rs 417 cr for 12 HRIDAY cities used: Govt data. Program deadline: Nov 2018 #budget2018 https://t.co/tp1GR5msCv
— IndiaSpend (@IndiaSpend) February 1, 2018
7mn formal jobs created: @arunjaitley. Data don't account for job losses after GST rollout, demonetisation in 2017; don't record how many of these jobs formalised versions of informal-sector ones, we reported in Jan 2018 #budget2018 https://t.co/7uC9dk7El7
— IndiaSpend (@IndiaSpend) February 1, 2018
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