Amidst the corona pandemic, the government proposed a budget outlay of Rs 2,23,846 crore for the health and welfare sector for 2021-22.
Budget 2021: Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman presented the general budget of 2021-22 in the Lok Sabha on Monday.
Earlier, in the meeting of the Union Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the budget of 2021-22 was approved. This is the first time that the 2021-22 budget has not been printed. It was released in electronic format.
This year also Finance Minister Sitharaman continued his tradition of taking the budget speech as a bookkeeper. For this, he used a red colored purse bookkeeping.
Amidst the corona pandemic, the government proposed a budget outlay of Rs 2,23,846 crore for the health and welfare sector for 2021-22. In this, an increase of 137 percent is proposed against the budget outlay of Rs 94,452 crore for the current financial year.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, in her budget speech, also proposed an outlay of Rs 35,000 crore in terms of vaccines for Covid-19 for the next financial year and also announced the availability of pneumococcal vaccines across the country, with which the lives of more than 50,000 children will be saved every year.
Presenting the general budget for 2021-22, the Finance Minister said, ‘I have made a provision of Rs 35,000 crore for Covid-19 vaccines for 2021-22. I commit to give more money when needed.
He said that India has already approved the use of two vaccines of Covid-19 and two more vaccines could soon be included in the vaccination campaign in the country.
Pneumococcal vaccine is effective against fatal infections such as pneumonia, septicemia and meningitis.
The Finance Minister said, ‘Pneumococcal vaccine manufactured in India is currently limited to only five states. It will be made available across the country.
Sitharaman said that this would save the lives of more than 50,000 children in the country every year.
Announced Rs 2000 crore for seven port projects
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitamaran on Monday announced seven port projects with an investment of over Rs 2000 crore. The Finance Minister said in his budget speech that these projects will be implemented under Public-Private Partnership (PPP).
Presenting the first paperless general budget in the Lok Sabha, Finance Minister Sitamaran said that he has proposed seven port projects with an investment of more than Rs 2000 crore through PPP mode.
There are currently 12 major ports in India which are under the control of the Central Government. These include Deendayal (formerly Kandla), Mumbai, JNPT, New Mangalore, Kochi, Chennai, Paradip, Kolkata (including Haldia).
Government proposes to introduce Securities Market Code
The government on Monday proposed to introduce a unified securities market code.
Sitharaman said that the Securities Markets Code will include the SEBI Act, Depositories Act and Government Securities Act.
He said that along with this, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi), the capital market regulator, will also be notified as the regulator of the gold exchange.
The Finance Minister also proposed to bring an investor charter to protect investors. It will be about the rights of investors in all financial institutions.
Rs 2.87 lakh crore provision for Water Life Mission
The government announced a provision of more than Rs 2.87 lakh crore for 4,378 urban local bodies under the Water Life Mission.
The Finance Minister said that Swachh Bharat 2.0 campaign will be implemented during the next five years, for which a provision of Rs 1,41,678 crore has been made.
The Finance Minister also announced a production-linked incentive scheme with a provision of Rs 1.97 lakh crore to boost manufacturing in the country. This scheme is for five years and it is starting from the current financial year.
Sitharaman said that in addition to this incentive scheme, a scheme for a large investment textile park will also be started. He said that the government will introduce a bill to create a development financial institution with a provision of Rs 20 thousand crore.
