Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman presented the first full budget of Modi 3.0 government introducing key measures, including in the health sector.

Seeking to expand medical education, the budget provides for 10,000 additional UG medical seats next year, and 75,000 seats to be added in the next five years. Considering the countrys skewed doctor-patient ratio, the decision to increase medical education seats is a much-needed and commendable move.

Day Care Cancer Centres will be set up in all district hospitals in next 3 years and 200 Centres will be established in the current financial year.

Costs of some drugs and medicines to come down; 36 Lifesaving drugs and medicines for patients suffering from cancer and rare diseases will be added to the list of medicines fully exempted from Basic Customs Duty; an additional 37 drugs and 13 new patient assistance programmes will be fully exempted from Basic Customs Duty (where they are supplied free of cost to patients).

Medical tourism and Heal In India will be promoted in partnership with the private sector along with capacity building and easier visa norms.

Other notable announcements

·        The Budget will also invest in Saksham Anganwadi and Poshan 2.0 seeking to provide nutritional support to over 8 crore children and 1 crore pregnant women, mothers and 20 lakh adolescent girls.

·        Government will launch a 6-year Mission for Aatmanirbharta in Pulses with special focus on Tur, Urad and Masoor

·        A Makhana Board to be established to improve production, processing, value addition, and marketing of makhana (fox nuts).

·        The Jal Jeevan Mission will be extended until 2028 with an enhanced total outlay.

The total allocation for healthcare is ₹95,957.87 crore, slightly higher than ₹86582.48 crore in FY25. A sum of 2,445 crore for the Production-Linked Incentive (PLI) scheme for the pharmaceutical industry.

Ayushman Bharat Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (AB PM-JAY) has been allocated ₹9,406 crore. Another ₹4,200 crore has been given to the Pradhan Mantri Ayushman Bharat Health Infrastructure Mission (PMABHIM).

Personal income tax

No income tax payable upto Rs 12 lakh(Rs 12.75 lakh for salaried tax payers with standard deduction of Rs 75,000). This limit will be Rs 12.75 lakh for salaried tax payers, due to standard deduction of Rs 75,000.

The revised tax rate structure under the new tax regime are as follows: