Government To Shell Out Rs 80,000 Cr on New Vaccination Policy and Food Ration Scheme

Rs. 80, 000 Cr worth vaccine policy to be shelled out by Government…learn more…

Wednesday, 9th June 2021

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday announced a free-for-all vaccination programme in the country starting June 21, along with the resumption of the free ration scheme for more than 80 crore people of the country until November this year.

The overall cost that has been estimated that will be incurred by the central government as a result of these policy decisions by the Indian Prime Minister is Rs. 80,000 crore.

The government is likely to set aside Rs. 70,000 crore that will be used in providing food to the poor and certain other earmarked categories right up to Diwali in November. According to sources familiar with the matter, they will be in need of an additional amount of Rs 10,000 crore to take care of the new vaccination policy that will ensure free vaccines to all citizens above the age of 18 years.

According to sources, the government may not need to dip its fingers into the bond market to generate the requisite funds stating that a dividend of 99,122 crore surplus has been received by them from the central bank and inflows are expected from asset sales.

With the additional amount available to the Centre, the government will only wind up spending a total of Rs 1.3 lakh crore on providing food, and has kept aside Rs 35,000 crore for vaccinations in in the budget.

Also Read: Latest Covid Updates from the state of Karnataka.

In Monday’s announcement, PM Narendra Modi also declared that those citizens taking their vaccines from private hospitals will not be charged more than Rs 150 over and above the amount that the hospitals pay the manufacturers of the vaccines at the time of purchase.

An economist with Emkay Global Financial Services Ltd. Madhavi Arora said despite the massive dividend from the Reserve Bank of India and a likelihood of higher tax revenue, the “fiscal math will likely worsen.”

She said, “Amid various push and pull there is a likelihood of fiscal slippage, to the tune of around 0.5% from the initially budgeted 6.8% of gross domestic product.”

India had launched the world’s biggest vaccination drive on January 16, 2021 and has since administered 23.61 crore doses. 3.4 per cent of the total population of the country now stands fully vaccinated.

The News Talkie Bureau

Source:

Timesofindia Indiatimes