10-Mar-2021: Cabinet approves creation of Pradhan Mantri Swasthya Suraksha Nidhi as a single non-lapsable reserve fund for Health from the proceeds of health and Education Cess
The Union Cabinet, chaired by the Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi has approved the Pradhan Mantri Swasthya Suraksha Nidhi (PMSSN) as a single non-lapsable reserve fund for share of Health from the proceeds of Health and Education Cess levied under Section 136-b of Finance Act, 2007.
Salient features of the PMSSN
- A non-lapsable reserve fund for Health in the Public Account;
- Proceeds of share of health in the Health and Education Cess will be credited into PMSSN;
- Accruals into the PMSSN will be utilized for the flagship schemes of the Ministry of Health & Family Welfare namely,
- Ayushman Bharat - Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (AB-PMJAY)
- Ayushman Bharat - Health and Wellness Centres (AB-HWCs)
- National Health Mission
- Pradhan Mantri Swasthya Suraksha Yojana (PMSSY)
- Emergency & disaster preparedness and responses during health emergencies
- Any future programme/scheme that targets to achieve progress towards SDGs and the targets set out in the National Health Policy (NHP) 2017.
- Administration and maintenance of the PMSSN is entrusted to Ministry of Health & Family Welfare; and
- In any financial year, the expenditure on such schemes of the MoHFW would be initially incurred from the PMSSN and thereafter, from Gross Budgetary Support (GBS).
Benefits: The major benefit will be: enhanced access to universal & affordable health care through availability of earmarked resources, while ensuring that the amount does not lapse at the end of financial year.
Background:
Health is vital for improved developmental outcomes. From an economic standpoint, better health improves productivity, and reduces losses due to premature death, prolonged disability and early retirement. Health and Nutrition also directly impact scholastic achievements and have a bearing on productivity and income. Health Outcomes depend substantially on public spending on health. One extra year of population life expectancy raises GDP per capita by 4%, Investment in health creates millions of jobs, largely for women, through a much needed expansion of the health workforce
In the budget speech 2018, the Finance Minister while announcing Ayushman Bharat Scheme, also announced replacement of existing 3% Education Cess by 4% Health and Education Cess.
5-Feb-2021: Skill Development fund and employment opportunities
The National Skill Development Fund (NSDF) has been helpful in increasing skilling of youth, enabling increased employment opportunities for them. NSDF meets its objectives through National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC), which is an industry led ‘Not For Profit Company’ set up for building skill development capacity and forging strong linkages with the market. NSDC acts as a catalyst in skill development by providing funding to enterprises, companies and organizations that provide skill training. It also develops appropriate models to enhance, support and coordinate private sector initiatives.
NSDC promotes establishment of model and aspirational skill centres known as Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Kendra (PMKK) for imparting skill training in every district throughout the country. A financial assistance of Rs. 231 Crore has been provided by NSDF to NSDC for setting up of PMKKs. 738 PMKKs have been established till date.
4-Feb-2021: The Micro Irrigation Fund (MIF), with a corpus of Rs. 5,000 crores has been created under NABARD
The Department of Agriculture, Cooperation & Farmers Welfare (DAC&FW) is implementing a Centrally Sponsored Scheme of ‘Per Drop More Crop’ component of ‘Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchayee Yojana (PMKSY-PDMC)’ from 2015-16 in all the States of the country which focuses on enhancing water use efficiency at farm level through Micro Irrigation viz. Drip and Sprinkler irrigation systems. Besides promoting Micro Irrigation, this component also supports micro level water storage or water conservation/management activities to supplement source creation for Micro Irrigation. An area of 52.93 lakh ha has been covered under Micro Irrigation in the country from 2015-16 to till date. Further, 4.84 lakh micro level water harvesting / secondary storage structures have been created under the scheme to supplement the micro irrigation.
Recent evaluation studies of the scheme indicate that the coverage of Micro Irrigation is relevant in achieving national priorities such as substantially improving on-farm water use efficiency, enhancing crop productivity, ensuring better returns to farmers, generating employment opportunities etc. Further, the scheme has been effective in terms of ensuring benefits for farmers e.g. higher productivity; reduction in labour cost, water consumption, power utilization, fertilizer use etc.
Efforts are being made to converge ‘Per Drop More Crop’ Scheme with Atal Bhujal Yojana (ABHY), Namami Gange Districts, Pradhan Mantri Kisan Urja Surakshaevem Utthan Mahabhiyan (PM-KUSUM), Water Harvesting Structures through Watershed Development component of PMKSY to propagate micro irrigation intensively to contribute in achieving the desired targets to enhance the water use efficiency in agriculture.
With a view to provide impetus to the Micro Irrigation in the country, MIF with a corpus of Rs. 5000 Crore was created with NABARD during 2018-19. The major objective of the fund is to facilitate the States in mobilizing the resources to provide top up/additional incentives to farmers for incentivising micro irrigation beyond the provisions available under PMKSY-PDMC. States may also access MIF exclusively for innovative integrated projects (like high water duty crops like sugarcane/solar linked systems/Micro irrigation in command area etc.) including projects in PPP mode depending on State specific requirements. The GoI provides 3% interest subvention on loans extended to State Govt. under MIF.
Under the ongoing MIF fund, projects for Rs. 3970.17 crore has been approved for loan under MIF to the States of Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Tamil Nadu, Haryana, West Bengal, Punjab & Uttarakhand which would be facilitating bringing of 12.83 lakh ha of area under Micro Irrigation. Besides, proposals from Rajasthan, West Bengal Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and J&K are in pipeline at State levels. More and more States are showing interest in availing assistance from Micro Irrigation Fund considering the potential for Micro Irrigation and its significance.
To further strengthen & expand the adoption of Micro Irrigation systems by the farmers in the county for enhancing water use efficiency at farm level, a Budget announcement has been made to double the initial corpus of Micro Irrigation Fund of Rs. 5000 created under NABARD, by augmenting it by another Rs. 5,000 crores.
The enhancement of corpus by additional Rs. 5000 crores will give further boost to the efforts of more States/UTs in promoting judicious use of water, enhancing water use efficiency as well as improving production and productivity which ultimately increase the income of the farming community.
20-Nov-2020: Release of Interest Sub-vented Loan from Micro-Irrigation Fund (MIF)
Micro Irrigation Fund with a corpus of Rs. 5000 crore created with NABARD was operationalised in 2019-20. The objective of the Fund is to facilitate the States in availing an interest subvented loan for expanding coverage of Micro Irrigation by taking up special and innovative projects and also for incentivising micro irrigation beyond the provisions available under PMKSY-Per Drop More Crop to encourage farmers to install micro irrigation systems.
Steering Committee of MIF has approved projects for loan of Rs. 3971.31 crore comprising Rs. 764.13 crore for Gujarat, Rs. 1357.93 crore for Tamil Nadu, Rs. 616.13 crore for Andhra Pradesh, Rs. 276.55 crore for West Bengal, Rs.790.94 crore for Haryana Rs. 150.00 crore for Punjab and Rs. 15.63 crore for Uttarakhand.
NABARD released loan of Rs 659.70 crore to Haryana, Tamil Nadu and Gujarat. Thereby a total amount of Rs. 1754.60 crore has been released so far, comprising Rs. 616.13 crore to Andhra Pradesh, Rs. 937.47 crore to Tamil Nadu, Rs. 21.57 crore to Haryana and Rs. 179.43 crore to Gujarat.
16-May-2018: Cabinet approves Corpus for Micro Irrigation Fund with NABARD under Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchayee Yojana
The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs has approved an initial Corpus of Rs.5,000 crore for setting up of a dedicated “Micro Irrigation Fund” (MIF) with NABARD under Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchayee Yojana (PMKSY).
The allocation of Rs. 2,000 crore and Rs. 3,000 crore will be utilised during 2018-19 and 2019-20 respectively. NABARD will extend the loan to State Governments during this period. Borrowings from NABARD shall be paid back in 7 years including the grace period of two years.
The lending rate under MIF has been proposed at 3% lower than the cost of raising the fund by NABARD. This cost shall be met from the ongoing scheme of PMKSY-PDMC by amending the existing guidelines. The total financial implication on interest subvention comes to about Rs 750 crore.
Benefits:
- The dedicated Micro Irrigation Fund would supplement the efforts of Per Drop More Crop Component (PDMC) of Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchayee Yojana in an effective and timely manner.
- With the additional investment for micro irrigation accessing MIF, innovative composite/ commodity/ community/ cluster based micro irrigation projects/ proposals may bring about 10 lakh ha.
- The Fund will facilitate States to mobilise resources for their initiatives, including additional (top up subsidy) in implementation of PMKSY-PDMC to achieve the annual target of about 2 Million ha/year during the remaining period of 14thFinance Commission under Per Drop More Crop Component of PMKSY as recommended by the Group of Secretaries.
Implementation Strategy and targets:
- States may access MIF for innovative integrated projects, including projects in the Public Private Partnership (PPP) mode and also for incentivizing micro irrigation through an additional (top up) subsidy over and above the one available under PMKSY-PDMC Guidelines and for covering additional areas. It should not be a substitute for State's share in PMKSY-PDMC.
- Farmers Producers Organization (FPO)/Cooperatives/State Level Agencies can also access the funds with State Government Guarantee or equivalent collateral. Farmers Co-operatives may access this fund for innovative cluster based Community Irrigation Projects.
- An Advisory Committee to provide policy direction and ensure effective planning, coordination and monitoring along with a Steering Committee for examining and approving the Projects/proposals from State Governments (total cost, eligible loan amount to the State and phasing), coordination and monitoring to ensure time bound implementation of the assisted projects/proposals within approved cost and phasing is proposed to be constituted.
Coverage: The approval shall have Pan India coverage. With the operation of MIF, it is expected that the States which are lagging behind in adoption of Micro Irrigation would also be encouraged to take advantage of the fund for incentivizing farmers as being done by the good performing States. Besides, community driven and innovative projects to be taken up by the States would bring additional coverage of Micro Irrigation.
Rationale: The Task Force on Micro Irrigation had estimated a potential of 69.5 m ha under micro irrigation, whereas the area covered so far is only about 10 m. ha (14%). Further, the Group of Secretaries, 2017, emphasized on target of 10 million ha under micro irrigation over the next 5 years, which would require an additional annual coverage of about 1 million ha compared to the present pace of implementation. This can be accomplished by effective utilization of the resources of both PMKSY-PDMC and MIF in any or both of the following manner:
- To facilitate the States in mobilising the resources for expanding coverage of Micro Irrigation by taking up special and innovative projects.
- To incentivise micro irrigation beyond the provisions available under PMKSY-PDMC to encourage farmers to install micro irrigation systems.