Days before the Budget session in Parliament, International Monetary Fund (IMF) Chief Economist Gita Gopinath on Tuesday recommended India to expand its health sector programmes such as the Ayushman Bharat and increase the number of personnel working in the medical field, reported PTI.

Notably, Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman will table the country’s annual Budget for 2021-2022 on February 1.

“In this pandemic, there has been spending but if you look at the health needs of the country, health capacity has to be increased. We can also see an argument for expanding Ayushman Bharat programme for instance and also increasing the number of medical personnel,” Gopinath told PTI in an interview.

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The IMF chief economist also supported the extension of the pandemic relief measures, more investment in the infrastructure sector and a very credible divestment path for commercially viable companies.

“There are needs to make more public investment. That [infrastructure] would be another area that would require thrust,” Gopinath said.

She said that the government has provided a lot of schemes for small and medium enterprises, most of which is in the form of liquidity support.

Gopinath proposed that there has to be progress made on the GST (Goods and Services Tax) collections as they surged to an all-time high of over Rs 1.15 lakh crore in December 2020 due to the COVID-19-induced lockdown restrictions. 

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She added that another area which has been long-standing is divestments.

“To have some sort of a very credible divestment path for commercially viable companies is a very important part. Also, the insolvency procedures would require a lot of work,” Gopinath said.

The IMF has projected an impressive 11.5% growth rate for India in 2021. However, Gopinath said that the country still has a long way to go.

Responding to a question on coronavirus, the IMF chief economist said that India put one of the strictest lockdowns in the world and that definitely left a mark on its economy, including a very large contraction in the first quarter of the fiscal year.

“But, with the reopening that happened to start the second quarter of the fiscal year and going forward, we are seeing mobility return faster than we had expected and importantly, despite that increase in mobility, there hasn’t been the next wave of infections which is quite different from what you see in several other parts of the world,” Gopinath said.

She favoured the extension of the pandemic support measures, including MNREGA’s expansion, that is being provided to low-income households in terms of cash.