|
Observing that the project demand and Budget Estimates for the Ministry of Ayush has been indicating a shortfall except for one year, in the past few years, the Parliamentary Panel on Health and Family Welfare has recommended to the Ministry of Ayush to take steps to have a more realistic projection at the stage of budget estimate.
The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Health and Family Welfare, in its 174th report on Demands for Grants 2026-27 of the Ministry of Ayush, observed that the alignment between projected demand and Budget Estimates during 2021-22 to 2026-27 reflects repeated shortfalls except in 2022-23, which may affect medium-term planning certainty, prioritisation of projects and phased execution of schemes.
The gap between the projected demand and allocation was at around 45.36% shortfall in 2021-22, which moved to a 0.25% excess in 2022-23, while returning to shortfall at 10.87% in 2023-24, 8% in 2024-25, 26.17% in 2025-26, and 22.37% in the Budget Estimates of 2026-27.
"The Committee is cognizant that deviations between projected demand and final allocations in public budgeting processes, particularly repeated shortfalls exceeding 20 per cent, may weaken the credibility of demand projections and reduce predictability in resource planning," said the Panel headed by Member of Parliament Prof. Ram Gopal Yadav.
Sustained substantial deviations between projected demand and approved allocation at BE and RE stage may adversely impact planning stability and execution strategy, it observed.
"The Committee, therefore, recommends that the Ministry to advance plea for the outcome-linked and evidence-based justification of its projected demands by clearly demonstrating measurable impact, implementation readiness and expected sectoral returns," said the Panel.
It further recommended that the Ministry should adopt a phased and prioritised approach in structuring its demands by distinguishing core commitments from expansionary and long-term aspirational components so as to facilitate more realistic projection at the stage of budget estimate keeping in view feasibility of project implementation and absorption capacity of implementing agencies.
"The Committee also recommends that the Ministry develop a multi-year financial projection framework to enable greater predictability in resource planning and smoother alignment with the budgetary processes of the ministry of finance," it added.
The Panel also observed with serious concern that against the total projected demand of Rs 5,679.48 crore for the year 2026-27, an allocation of only Rs. 4,408.93 crore has been made at the Budget Estimates stage, resulting in a substantial shortfall of Rs. 1,270.55 crore (22.37 %) of the projected requirement.
This fiscal compression is not uniformly distributed across components but is disproportionately concentrated in certain critical and expansion oriented segments which includes flagship implementation schemes like National Ayush Mission, research bodies and premier institute and quality strengthening initiatives like the Ayush Oushadhi Gunvatta Evam Utpadan Samvardhan Yojana (AOUGSY), "which may have a cascading impact on capacity augmentation, infrastructure expansion, research continuity and the overall momentum of institutional growth in strategically important and emerging domains of the Ayush systems," it added.
Despite its recommendation in a previous report asking the Ministry to seek supplementary grants at the Revised Estimate stage in 2025-26, the information furnished instead reflects a reduction of Rs. 321 crore at the RE stage.
The Panel recommended that the Ministry of Ayush, in consultation with the ministry of finance, undertake a mid-year review of allocations with a view to providing adequate supplementary support to bridge the critical funding gap, and priority should be accorded to key components, particularly flagship implementation schemes such as the National Ayush Mission (NAM), research councils, premier national institutes and quality-strengthening initiatives, so as to prevent disruption of ongoing projects, dilution of research momentum or deferment of infrastructure expansion.
"The Committee also urges the Ministry to adopt a more realistic and consultative budgeting approach in future cycles to ensure adequate BE allocations so that no project/scheme should suffer for want of funds and thereby doubly safeguarding programmatic continuity and sustaining the growth trajectory of the sector," added the Panel.
It also sought the Ministry of Ayush formulate its Budget Estimate projections after duly factoring in realistic assessment of each scheme/project and keeping in account prevailing and anticipated inflation as well so that real growth in allocations is maintained at a meaningful level to support sustained expansion of Ayush services.
|