With the country continuing to grapple with the ever-changing variants of COVID, the Union Budget, presented in Parliament on February 1, 2021, by Ms. Nirmala Sitharaman, the finance minister, was expected to offer a substantial rise in respect of allocation of funds to the healthcare sector. However, the government proposal to spend ~ INR 86,606 crores on the health sector in FY 2022-23 is a negligible increase from the revised estimate of INR 85,915 crores in FY 2021-22, viewed with concern by health experts.
The finance minister clarified that more than 350 exemption entries are proposed to be gradually phased out from customs duty. These include exemption from customs duty on certain agricultural produce, chemicals, fabrics, medical devices, and drugs and medicines for which domestic capacity is sufficient. Further, as a simplification measure, several concessional rates will be incorporated in the Customs Tariff Schedule instead of prescribing them through various notifications. The finance minister also stated that the government would promote thematic funds for blended finance to encourage important sunrise sectors such as Climate Action, Deep-Tech, Digital Economy, Pharma, and Agri-Tech. However, the government’s share is limited to 20%, and private fund managers manage the funds.
Please click here to read the full article by Sidharrth Shankar and Vidur Prabhakar, published in Outlook.
Sidharrth is the Co-Chair of the Corporate Practice at JSA. He specializes in General Corporate Commercial, Mergers & Acquisitions and Private Equity.