Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman will present the general budget for the financial year 2021-22 on 1 February 2021 next year.
Budget 2021 FE Poll: During the Corona epidemic, people came to know the status of health facilities in the country. In such a situation, most people around them are expecting help from the government for better health facilities. In the next budget, he hopes that the government will focus on improving health facilities. Financial Express Online (Hindi) started a poll about this, in which readers tried to know what they wanted from the budget. It was revealed in this poll that more than half of the 52 percent people said that the government should increase the expenditure on healthcare in the upcoming budget.
In the poll, the readers were asked that according to them the Government of India should give priority to spending in the next budget. In this, health, education, employment and research facility were given as an alternative. The highest 52 percent of these people believe that the government should spend the most on strengthening healthcare. Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman will present the general budget for the financial year 2021-22 on 1 February 2021 next year.
Demand for more spending on healthcare in the budget
During the Corona epidemic, most people came to know the status of health care in the country. So far people have not been much aware about health, but now most awareness is being seen about it. In the current financial year 2020-21, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman allocated only 3.6 percent of the budget for the health sector. It is the lowest among the BRICS countries (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa). According to FE Online (Hindi) poll, 52 percent of the people said that the government should increase the budget allocation for the health sector this time.
After healthcare, focus on the research facility
In the upcoming budget, most people want more budget allocation for healthcare. Apart from this, 24 percent people believe that the government should strengthen the research facility. Prime Minister Modi’s ambitious plan ‘Make in India’ and ‘Self-reliant India’ will be realized only if the R&D facility in the country is strengthened. R&D will not only increase manufacturing in the country, but will also increase the quality of production. Very little is still spent on R&D in India.
However, it is increasing with time. According to the data given on the Ministry of Science and Technology, it increased threefold between 2008 and 2018. However, in the case of BRICS countries, in the financial year 2017-18, India spent the least on R&D, just 0.7 percent of GDP. Among the BRICS countries, China accounted for 2.1 percent of GDP.
Demand to provide employment in the village itself
16 percent of the people in the poll say that the government should now make a provision in the budget to provide employment to migrant workers. Due to Corona epidemic many workers had returned to their village and many people are still in the village. They are hopeful that the government will provide employment for them in the village itself. One means of providing employment in the village is the MNREGA, through which migrant workers get guaranteed 100 days of employment in their surroundings. The budget allocation of MNREGA has been increasing for the last six years.
In the current financial year also, the budget allocation increased compared to the previous financial year but was much less than the revised allocation. In the last financial year 2019-20, 60 thousand crores was allocated for MNREGA at the time of budget, but it was later revised to 71 thousand crores. In comparison, a budget of 61 thousand crores was allocated this time. However, due to Corona epidemic, the Finance Minister had allocated an additional 40 thousand crores for MNREGA in May. In such a situation, if allocation is increased for the next budget, then employment can be provided to the migrant workers.
Demand to increase spending on education
Due to Corona epidemic, schools and colleges have been closed since March and studies are going on online. So far, studies in school and college have not started smoothly, in such a way that 8 per cent of the people believe that the government should give priority to online education in the budget, if education is not affected. In India, 4.6 percent of GDP is spent on education, which is very low according to the proposal of NITI Aayog. According to the NITI Aayog, to increase the quality of education in the country, the expenditure on education should be increased to 6 percent.
Source: www.financialexpress.com
