Govt spending on social sector rose in five years: Survey

Expenditure on social services, out of total budgetary expenditure, increased to 26 per cent in 2019-20 (BE) from 23.4 per cent in 2014-15, reveals the Economic Survey 2019-20, tabled in Parliament by Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Friday.

The survey report shows that between 2014-15 and 2019-20, India has increased its expenditure on social services, by 1.5 percent of the GDP.

Of a total budgetary expenditure of Rs 32.85 lakh crore in 2014-15, expenditure on social services, including education and health, was Rs 7.68 lakh crore. For 2019-20, total budgetary expenditure is pegged at Rs 60.72 lakh crore whereas expenditure on social services is Rs 15.79 lakh crore.

For education, expenditure increased from 2.8 per cent in 2014-15 to 3.1 per cent in 2019-20 and for health it increased from 1.2 to 1.6 per cent.

The Survey claims that the country has registered significant progress in the social services sectors of education, health and employment in the last five years as per data from the Economic Survey 2019-20.

The Economic Survey provides a holistic view of the performance of different sectors during the fiscal. Crafted by the Chief Economic Advisor to the government, the Survey was tabled in the Parliament by the union finance minister, a day ahead of the presentation of the union Budget.IANS