Announcements for the Healthcare sector from today’s Budget..

#India?#budget2023?-24: Key healthcare announcements

The Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced various provisions for the healthcare sector under the central government’s Inclusive Development agenda. The government’s goal of increasing government healthcare spending to 3% of GDP, the spending has increased to 2.1 percent of GDP in 2023 from 1.4 percent in 2019.

Here is a list of top?#healthcare-specific?#announcements?made by the Union Finance Minister in Union Budget 2023-24

Nursing colleges

• 157 new nursing education colleges to be opened in co-location with the existing 157 medical colleges established since 2014.

Sickle cell anemia elimination mission

• To eliminate Sickle Cell Anemia by 2047 to be launched
• Universal screening of 7 crore people in the age group of 0-40 years in affected tribal areas.

Medical research

• Facilities in select ICMR Labs to be made available for research by public and private medical college faculty

Pharma innovation

• A new program launched to promote research and innovation in pharmaceuticals
• Industry to be encouraged to invest in research and development in specific priority areas

Multidisciplinary courses for medical devices

• Dedicated multidisciplinary courses for medical devices to be supported in existing institutions
• Ensuring availability of skilled manpower for futuristic medical technologies, high-end manufacturing and research

India-developed AI

"Make AI in India and Make AI work for India” scheme introduced

• 3 specialized AI centers to be established in educational institutes
• AI-based solutions will be developed for healthcare
• A public-private partnership model will be implemented for this

5G powered applications

• 100 labs to develop applications using 5G services to be set up in engineering institutions

‘Aspirational Districts and Blocks Program’ expanded

• The coverage of ‘Aspirational Districts and Blocks Program‘ expanded from 112 in 2018 to 500
• The progam aims at achieving incremental progress of India’s most underpriviledged districts. Their performance is reviewed based on 49 Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) under 5 broad socio-economic themes: Health & Nutrition, Education, Agriculture & Water Resources, Financial Inclusion & Skill Development and Infrastructure.

National data governance

• National Data Governance Policy introduced to provide access to anonymized data to startups and academia for innovation and research.

Duty cuts

• Basic customs duty on denatured ethyl alcohol used in chemical industry exempted
• Basic customs duty on crude glycerin for use in manufacture of epicholorhydrin to be reduced from 7.5 per cent to 2.5 per cent

Income tax

• Rebate limit to be raised to Rs 7 lakh from the current Rs 5 lakh in the new tax regime
• Reduced income slabs from six to five, starting from Rs 3 lakh and tax rates to be as under:

1. Rs 0-3 lakh: Nil
2. Rs 3-6 lakh: 5 per cent
3. Rs 6-9 lakh: 10 per cent
4. Rs 9-12 lakh : 15 per cent
5. Rs 12-15 lakh: 20 per cent
6. Above Rs 15 lakh: 30 per cent

Key points:

• FY-2024 fiscal deficit target at 5.9% of GDP
• Outlay for capital spending increased 33% to 10 trillion rupees in 2023/24
• Cigarettes to get costlier as Budget proposes 16% hike in duty
• To set up agriculture accelerator fund
• Increases budget allocations to 790 bln rupees for affordable housing in 2023/24
• Finance Minister says increase in public capex key to crowding in private investments
• Indian economy has become the fifth-largest economy in the world in last nine years
• Budget adopts seven priorities including inclusive, green growth
• Agricultural credit target raised to 20 trillion rupees ($244.42 billion) for 2023/24
• Sitharaman says the economy is growing the fastest among major economies

Finance Minister, Nirmala Sitharaman also outlined seven priorities for the 'First Budget in Amrit Kaal'

1. Inclusive development
2. Reaching the last mile
3. Infra & investment
4. Unleashing the potential
5. Green growth
6. Youth power
7. Financial sector

"The Indian economy is on the right track, heading to a bright future. Our focus on reforms and sound policies resulting in Jan Bhagidari helped us in trying times, our rising global profile is due to several accomplishments," FM said.

She added, "It would also be the first normal budget after the Covid pandemic and amid a global slowdown. The priority for Budget 2023 is thus expected to be to maintain a reasonably high but stable growth in the medium term. Alongside, to establish fiscal credibility with a suitable incremental reduction in the fiscal deficit to GDP ratio."