Not happy with hike in health allocation, Parliamentary panel tells govt

Aditi Tandon
New Delhi, March 28

The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Health has expressed displeasure at the slow raise in health budgets over the years saying it was not happy with the piecemeal progress.

In its report to Parliament, the committee, noting the increase in government health expenditure as a percentage of GDP from 1.15 per cent in 2013-14 to 1.35 per cent in 2017-18 (latest data available), said, “We note the National Health Accounts data submitted by the ministry and that there has been a gradual increase in Government Health Expenditure (GHE) as a percentage of GDP ranging from 1.2 to 1.35. However, the committee is not happy with the slow trend of increase in the share of health budget.” The committee asked the government to urgently increase government health expenditure to 5 per cent of the GDP by 2025.

“Over the years, the committee has consistently urged the government to take cognizance of the dismal health infrastructure and increase the share of health budget. The National Health Policy, 2017, also speaks of increasing GHE to 2.5 per cent of GDP by 2025,” the panel said lamenting low budgets despite Covid-19 impacts.

It noted that against the budget projection of Rs 93,299.75 crore for 2022-23, the Department of Health was allocated Rs 83,000 crore.

“The revised estimates for 2021-22 were Rs 82,920.65 crore and the budget estimates 2022-23 allocation of Rs 83,000 crore — almost equal to the revised estimates of last year. Just a 0.2 per cent increase in BE 2022-23 over RE 2021-22 reveals the government’s reluctance in addressing the immediate need of increasing public investments in the health sector,” the committee said.