Budget 2021's Top Highlights: Healthcare, Infra, Disinvestment, monetisation at forefront

Kicking off the new decade with India's first paperless budget, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Monday tabled the Union Budget in the Parliament. Presenting one of the shortest budget speech (1 hour 40 mins), Budget 2021 focussed mainly on Healthcare, National Monetization Pipeline, disinvestment, infrastructure, agriculture, fiscal deficit and direct taxes.

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Top talking points of Budget 2021

PM Aatmanirbhar Swasth Bharat Yojana

Emerging in the post-COVID phase, Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced an expanded focus on Health, allocating 2.83 lakh crores in this year's Union Budget - a 137% in Health budget. Under the Health and well-being sector, she announced a Centre-sponsored Health system - PM Aatmanirbhar Swasth Yojana with an outlay of Rs 64,180 crores over 6 years in addition to the National Health Mission. The FM outlined the six pillars on which the Aatmanirbhar sector of Budget 2021 rested - Health and Well-Being, Physical and Financial capital and infrastructure, Inclusive Development for Aspirational India, Reinvigorating Human Capital, Innovation and R&D.

• Support for 17,000 rural and urban wellness centres
• Setting up health labs in all districts and 3382 public block units in 11 states
• Establishing critical care units in 602 districts and 12 govt institutions
• Strengthening National Centre for Disease control - its five centres and its urban units
• Expansion of the integrated Health portal to all states & UTs
• Operationalisation of 17 Public Health units and strengthening of 33 existing units at points of  entry - 33 airports, 7 sea ports and 11 land crossings
• Setting up of 17 health emergency centres and 2 mobile hospitals
• Setting up a regional WHO centre office, 9 bio-safety level 3 laboratories, 4 regional National Institute of Virology 

Budget 2021: Covid shifts fiscal deficit target to 6.8%; Contingency Fund gets ₹30,000 cr

National Monetization Pipeline

In a bid to make ease burden on PSUs' debt and to optimise the use of government assets, government announced a 'National Monetization Pipeline' which covered key state assets to be monetised like - 5 operational toll roads worth Rs. 5,000 crore, Transmission assets worth Rs. 7,000 crore, Dedicated Freight Corridor, airports, Oil and Gas Pipelines, AAI Airports, Warehousing Assets and Sports Stadiums. Government has increased its capital expenditure to Rs  5.54 lakh crore - a sharp increase of 34.5% over Rs. 4.12 lakh crore allocated in 2020-21 to push the growth in economy.

Budget 2021: PSU Privatisation in all but 4 sectors; ₹1.75Tn disinvestment target; LIC IPO

Disinvestment and Strategic Sale

The government has announced strategic disinvestment of BPCL, Air India, Shipping Corporation of India, Container Corporation of India, IDBI Bank, BEML, Pawan Hans, Neelachal Ispat Nigam limited etc. to be completed in 2021-22, while two other banks apart from IDBI Bank and one General Insurance company is to be privatized. With LIC's IPO to begin in 2021-22, government also plans to ensure timely closure of sick or loss making CPSEs. This is in line with the government's decision to increase FDI limit from 49% to 74% and allow foreign ownership and control with safeguards. Centre also plans to allow CPSEs to be privatized, except in four strategic areas.

Infrastructure

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman noted that over 13,000 km length of roads at a cost of Rs 3.3 lakh crore had already been awarded under Rs 5.35 lakh crore Bharatmala project of which 3,800 km has been constructed. Further, she said that 11,000 km of national highway corridor was expected to be completed by March 2022 and that projects for 8500 km will be awarded. Nirmala Sitharaman also announced the government's intentions to set up more economic corridors in the future, hinting at 3500 km of national highway works at an investment of Rs 1.03 lakh crores. Here are key projects:

• Madurai-Kollam corridor and Chittor- Thatchur corridor whose construction will begin in 2022. 
• 1100 km of National Highway works in Kerala at an investment of Rs 65,000 crore including a 600 km section of Mumbai-Kanyakumari corridor in Kerala.
• 675 km of highway work in West Bengal at a cost of Rs 25,000 cr including the upgrading of existing roads in Kolkata, Siliguri.
• National highway work of Rs 19,000 cr was already in progress in Assam and an investment of Rs 34,000 crore covering 1300 km of National Highway will be undertaken in the state in 3 years. 
• An enhanced outlay Rs 1,18,101 crore was provided for the Ministry of Roads, Transport, and Highway of which Rs 1,08,230 crores was provided as capital - highest capital provided. 

Agriculture

Amid the ongoing farmers' protest over the new Farm Laws, Centre said it ensures MSP at minimum 1.5 times the cost of production across all commodities, with steady increase in the procurement. 

• In other to strengthen the mandis, APMC will get access to the Agriculture Infrastructure Funds. 
• Agricultural credit target enhanced to Rs. 16.5 lakh crore in FY22
• Rural Infrastructure Development Fund to be enhanced to Rs. 40,000 crore from Rs. 30,000 crore
• ‘Operation Green Scheme’ to be extended to 22 perishable products, to boost value addition in agriculture and allied products
• Around 1.68 crore farmers registered and Rs. 1.14 lakh crore of trade value carried out through e-NAMs; 1,000 more mandis to be integrated with e-NAM to bring transparency and competitiveness.

Budget 2021: 137% hike in Health spending; PM Aatmanirbhar Swasth Bharat Yojana launched

Fiscal deficit

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman  announced that the Fiscal deficit of FY-2021-2022 was pegged at 6.8% of GDP while FY-2020-21's fiscal deficit was pegged at 9.5% GDP, while presenting the Annual Budget. Adhering to the Finance Commission's recommendation the Centre has kept the state's share of the Central taxes at 41%, while J&K and Ladakh will be funded by Centre. Moreover, Net borrowing for the states allowed at 4% of GSDP for the year 2021-2022 as per recommendation of 15th FC. The Contingency Fund of India is to be augmented from Rs. 500 crore to Rs. 30,000 crore through Finance Bill

Income tax

Easing taxes, exemption from filing tax returns for senior citizens over 75 years of age and having only pension and interest income. To ease disputes in a more accessible manner, National Faceless Income Tax Appellate Tribunal Centre is to be established. Limit of turnover for tax audit has been increased to Rs. 10 crore from Rs. 5 crore.