The central government has allocated Rs 35,000 crore for the Covid-19 Vaccine in the General Budget. Expenditure Secretary TV Somanathan of the Finance Ministry’s expenditure secretary said that with this amount of Rs 35,000 crores, 50 crore people can be easily put on the COVID vaccine. TV Somanathan told Moneycontrol that the funds allocated by the Finance Ministry for the COVID vaccine are not final amounts, the government will provide more funds if needed.
TV Somanathan said, the Finance Ministry estimates that it will cost about 700 rupees to give 2 doses of corona vaccine to a person, which includes the cost of syringes, transportation, cold storage, etc. Accordingly, the amount allocated is sufficient to give 2 doses of corona vaccine to 500 million people. He said that the Finance Ministry has not done this keeping in mind the allocation number, but this allocation has been done keeping in mind the expenditure on the corona vaccine.
State governments will also allocate in the budget for vaccine
Expenditure Secretary TV Somanathan said that according to the seventh schedule of the constitution, the state of public health is a subject. Because of this, the state governments will also allocate funds for the COVID-19 vaccine in their budget. It is therefore possible that the amount allocated by the states for the corona vaccine exceeds the amount allocated by the central government. The expenditure secretary said that according to the health ministry data, 41.4 lakh people have been vaccinated with the corona vaccine so far. Let us tell you that COVID vaccine will be first introduced to 30 million health workers and frontline workers like Police, Armed Forces and Senior Citizens.
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Expenditure on vaccine included in CSR
TV Somanathan pointed out that many private companies have sought permission to spend their employees and their families on the COVID-19 vaccine through Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). On this demand, the Ministry of Corporate Affairs has given its approval. That is, the expenditure on the COVID vaccine will now be included in the CSR. However, companies have not yet been allowed to apply the corona vaccine to their employees. After a few months, these private companies can get its approval.
