Chennai: There is still a long way to go before the target of public health expenditure is achieved, said a Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) report tabled in Parliament.
It also said the Central allocation for health for 2019-20 was far short of target.
CAG, on Monday, pointed out that in States, health spending as a percentage of total States expenditure, ranged from 3.29 to 5.32 per cent, which shows that this needs considerable augmentation.
The body audited the preparedness activities of selected 17 Central Ministries including, NITI Aayog, Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI), Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW) and seven States – Assam, Chhattisgarh, Haryana, Kerala, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal – being undertaken under the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and specifically focused on “Good Health and Well Being”, targets.
The audit was taken up to ascertain the ‘Preparedness of the Government for the Implementation of SDGs’, covering aspects such as extent to which the 2030 agenda had been adapted. It selected ‘Goal 3- Good Health and Well-Being’ for a detailed examination.
“There is still a long way to go before the target of public health expenditure is achieved and the central allocation for health for 2019-20 was far short of target. In States, health spending as a percentage of total states expenditure, ranged from 3.29 to 5.32% which shows that this need considerable augmentation,” CAG said in its report.
“The UN General Assembly in September 2015, adopted resolution titled ‘Transforming our World: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development’ consisting of 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and 169 associated targets. Efforts to raise public awareness about SDGs and initiatives undertaken in the selected States were not comprehensive, focussed or sustained,” said the report.
It said the public health expenditure as a percentage of gross domestic product (GDP) had been increasing since 2015-16 but remained within a narrow band of 1.02-1.28 per cent of GDP.
“While it is recognised that projecting financial resources for achieving the Targets by 2030 is a challenging task, Ministry of Finance and State governments are yet to integrate SDG related financial resources in national budgeting for implementing SDGs,” it said.
“Data for certain health indicators were not regularly or uniformly available,” the report said.
NITI Aayog that is coordinating the 2030 target, also came under fire. “A roadmap is yet to be aligned with defined milestones for SDG targets to be achieved in the year 2020, 2025 and 2030,” the report said and added, “States are yet to prepare policy documents. Mapping of goals/targets undertaken by NITI Aayog and selected States is still ongoing.”
The auditor called for urgent steps to integrate SDGs into the accounting and budgeting framework both at the Centre and the States and stated that use of Direct Benefit Transfers (DBT) should be expanded and strengthened to avoid leakages and to improve efficiency in usage of financial resources.