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Yesterday, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare released a draft Bill to address incidences of violence against healthcare professionals and damage to the property of clinical establishments. Public comments on the draft Bill are invited till the end of September. In this context, we discuss key provisions of the draft Bill below.
What does the draft Bill seek to do?
The draft Bill prohibits any acts of violence committed against healthcare service personnel including doctors, nurses, para medical workers, medical students, and ambulance drivers, among others. It also prohibits any damage caused to hospitals, clinics, and ambulances.
Under the draft Bill, violence means any act which may cause: (i) harm, injury or danger to the life of a healthcare service personnel, while discharging their duty, (ii) obstruction or hindrance to healthcare service personnel, while discharging their duty, and (ii) loss or damage to any property or documents in a clinical establishment.
What are the penalties for committing such acts of violence?
Currently, the Indian Penal Code, 1860 provides for penalties for any harm caused to an individual or any damage caused to property. Further, the Code prescribes penalties for causing grievous hurt i.e., permanent damage to another individual. The draft Bill additionally specifies penalties for similar offences caused to healthcare professionals and clinical establishments.
Under the draft Bill, any person who commits violence, or abets such violence may be punished with imprisonment between six months to five years, along with a fine of up to five lakh rupees. However, if any person causes grievous hurt to a healthcare service professional, he will be imprisoned for a period between three years to ten years, along with a fine between two lakh rupees and Rs 10 lakh. Note that, currently under the Indian Penal Code, 1860, an individual who commits grievous hurt is punishable with imprisonment of up to seven years, along with a fine.
In addition to the punishment for offences committed under the draft Bill, the convicted person will also be liable to pay compensation to the affected parties. This includes: (i) payment of twice the amount of the market value of the damaged property, (ii) one lakh rupees for causing hurt to healthcare service personnel, and (iii) five lakh rupees for causing grievous hurt to healthcare service personnel. In case of non-payment of compensation, the amount may be recovered under the Revenue Recovery Act, 1890. The Act provides for recovering certain public arrears by attaching the property of an individual.
How will these cases of violence be investigated?
All offences under the draft Bill will be cognizable (i.e., a police officer can arrest without a warrant) and non-bailable. An aggrieved healthcare service professional can write a request to the person-in-charge of the clinical establishment to inform the police of an offence committed under the draft Bill. Further, any case registered under this Bill will be investigated by a police officer not below the rank of Deputy Superintendent of Police.
This Bill is currently in the draft stage and has been released for comments by stakeholders and experts in the field. The draft will be revised to incorporate such suggestions. Note that, comments can be emailed to the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare at us-ms-mohfwnic.in by the end of September.
The Finance Commission is a constitutional body formed by the President of India to give suggestions on centre-state financial relations. The 15th Finance Commission is required to submit two reports. The first report will consist of recommendations for the financial year 2020-21. The final report with recommendations for the 2021-26 period will be submitted by October 30, 2020. In this post, we explain the key recommendations of the report.
What is the amount of tax devolution to the states, and how is it being calculated?
The Finance Commission uses certain criteria when deciding the devolution to states. For example, income distance criterion has been used by the 14th and 15th Finance Commissions. Under this criterion, states with lower per capita income would be given a higher share to maintain equity among states. Another example is Demographic Performance criterion which has been introduced by the 15th Finance Commission. The Demographic Performance criterion is to reward efforts made by states in controlling their population.
The 15th Finance Commission used the following criteria while determining the share of states: (i) 45% for the income distance, (ii) 15% for the population in 2011, (iii) 15% for the area, (iv) 10% for forest and ecology, (v) 12.5% for demographic performance, and (vi) 2.5% for tax effort. For 2020-21, the Commission has recommended a total devolution of Rs 8,55,176 crore to the states, which is 41% of the divisible pool of taxes. This is 1% lower than the percentage recommended by the 14th Finance Commission.
Table 1 below compares the new criteria with the criteria recommended by the 14th Finance Commission.
Table 1: Criteria for devolution (2020-21)
|
Criteria |
14th FC 2015-20 |
15th FC 2020-21 |
|
Income Distance |
50.0 |
45.0 |
|
Population 1971 |
17.5 |
- |
|
Population 2011 |
10.0 |
15.0 |
|
Area |
15.0 |
15.0 |
|
Forest Cover |
7.5 |
- |
|
Forest and Ecology |
- |
10.0 |
|
Demographic Performance |
- |
12.5 |
|
Tax Effort |
- |
2.5 |
|
Total |
100 |
100 |
Sources: Report for the year 2020-21, 15th Finance Commission; PRS.
Uttar Pradesh and Bihar have received the largest devolutions for 2020-21, receiving Rs 1,53,342 crore, and Rs 86,039 crore respectively. Karnataka and Kerala saw the largest decreases in the share of the divisible pool with a decrease of 0.49% and 0.25% respectively. Table 2 below displays the state-wise breakdown of the share in the divisible pool and the total devolution.
Table 3: Share of states in the centre’s taxes
|
State |
14th Finance Commission |
15th Finance Commission |
Devolution for FY 2020-2021 |
||
|
Share out of 42% |
Share in divisible pool |
Share out of 41% |
Share in divisible pool |
(In Rs crore) |
|
|
Andhra Pradesh |
1.81 |
4.31 |
1.69 |
4.11 |
35,156 |
|
Arunachal Pradesh |
0.58 |
1.38 |
0.72 |
1.76 |
15,051 |
|
Assam |
1.39 |
3.31 |
1.28 |
3.13 |
26,776 |
|
Bihar |
4.06 |
9.67 |
4.13 |
10.06 |
86,039 |
|
Chhattisgarh |
1.29 |
3.07 |
1.4 |
3.42 |
29,230 |
|
Goa |
0.16 |
0.38 |
0.16 |
0.39 |
3,301 |
|
Gujarat |
1.3 |
3.1 |
1.39 |
3.4 |
29,059 |
|
Haryana |
0.46 |
1.1 |
0.44 |
1.08 |
9,253 |
|
Himachal Pradesh |
0.3 |
0.71 |
0.33 |
0.8 |
6,833 |
|
Jammu and Kashmir |
0.78 |
1.86 |
- |
- |
- |
|
Jharkhand |
1.32 |
3.14 |
1.36 |
3.31 |
28,332 |
|
Karnataka |
1.98 |
4.71 |
1.49 |
3.65 |
31,180 |
|
Kerala |
1.05 |
2.5 |
0.8 |
1.94 |
16,616 |
|
Madhya Pradesh |
3.17 |
7.55 |
3.23 |
7.89 |
67,439 |
|
Maharashtra |
2.32 |
5.52 |
2.52 |
6.14 |
52,465 |
|
Manipur |
0.26 |
0.62 |
0.29 |
0.72 |
6,140 |
|
Meghalaya |
0.27 |
0.64 |
0.31 |
0.77 |
6,542 |
|
Mizoram |
0.19 |
0.45 |
0.21 |
0.51 |
4,327 |
|
Nagaland |
0.21 |
0.5 |
0.23 |
0.57 |
4,900 |
|
Odisha |
1.95 |
4.64 |
1.9 |
4.63 |
39,586 |
|
Punjab |
0.66 |
1.57 |
0.73 |
1.79 |
15,291 |
|
Rajasthan |
2.31 |
5.5 |
2.45 |
5.98 |
51,131 |
|
Sikkim |
0.15 |
0.36 |
0.16 |
0.39 |
3,318 |
|
Tamil Nadu |
1.69 |
4.02 |
1.72 |
4.19 |
35,823 |
|
Telangana |
1.02 |
2.43 |
0.87 |
2.13 |
18,241 |
|
Tripura |
0.27 |
0.64 |
0.29 |
0.71 |
6,063 |
|
Uttar Pradesh |
7.54 |
17.95 |
7.35 |
17.93 |
1,53,342 |
|
Uttarakhand |
0.44 |
1.05 |
0.45 |
1.1 |
9,441 |
|
West Bengal |
3.08 |
7.33 |
3.08 |
7.52 |
64,301 |
|
Total |
42 |
100 |
41 |
100 |
8,55,176 |
Sources: Reports of 14th and 15th Finance Commission; PRS.
What are the various grants recommended by the 15th Finance Commission?
The Terms of Reference of the Finance Commission require it to recommend grants-in-aid to the States. These grants include: (i) revenue deficit grants, (ii) grants to local bodies, and (iii) disaster management grants.
14 states are estimated to face a revenue deficit post-devolution. To make up for this deficit, the Commission has recommended revenue deficit grants worth Rs 74,341 crore to these 14 states. Additionally, three states (Karnataka, Mizoram, and Telangana) have received special grants worth Rs 6,674 crore. The special grants are being given to compensate for a decline in the sum of tax devolution and revenue deficit grants in 2020-21 as compared to 2019-20.
The Commission has recommended a total of Rs 90,000 crore for grants to the local bodies in 2020-21. This amounts to an increase over the Rs 87,352 crore allocated for 2019-20 for the same. The new allocation is 4.31% of the divisible pool. Of this sum, Rs 60,750 crore has been recommended for rural local bodies, and Rs 29,250 crore for urban local bodies. These grants will be made available to all three tiers of Panchayat- village, block, and district.
To promote local-level mitigation activities, the Commission has recommended the setting up of National and State Disaster Management Funds. Recommended grants for the State Disaster Risk Management Fund is Rs 28,983 crore, while the allocation for the National Disaster Risk Management Fund is Rs 12,390 crore.
Apart from these, guidelines for performance-based grants and sector-specific grants have been outlined. The Commission has recommended a grant of Rs 7,375 crore for nutrition in 2020-21. Sectors for which sector-specific grants will be provided in the final report include: (i) nutrition, (ii) health, (iii) pre-primary education, (iv) judiciary, and (v) railways.
For more details, please see our summary of the report.
