Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa has proposed an additional allocation of Rs 18 billion for the expansion of facilities in the public health sector, in the wake of the new reality emerged with the outbreak of Covid-19 pandemic.

Under this budget proposal for the fiscal year 2021, maternity and child clinics, dispensaries and adult service centres, laboratory services, hospitals and research institutes with the required human resources to maintain a people-centric health service, are expected to be expanded.

The finance minister also proposed to create a new insurance scheme to support those who temporarily lost livelihoods due to the quarantine process related to the Covid-19 pandemic.

In addition, he proposed to get businesses and factories with more than 50 employees, to contribute 0.25 per cent of the turnover to the proposed insurance fund. It is intended to use this insurance scheme for employed at retail and wholesale shops with more than 5 employees and hotels.

Another proposal under the investments for public health is to implement a COVID-19 Insurance Scheme with the assistance of the Government in parallel to the Agrahara Insurance Scheme for all public services.

Further, as the importation of drugs for free health care in our country alone costs about USD 550 million annually, the finance minister also proposed to provide bank and financial facilities on the Treasury guarantees to increase the production capacity of the State Pharmaceutical Manufacturing Corporation to expand the production of essential pharmaceuticals.

He suggested the establishment of a modern investment zone for local and foreign private investors under the Strategic Development Act.

With regard to the nutritional development of infants and pregnant mothers, PM Rajapaksa proposed an additional allocation of Rs. 1.5 billion to be provided to purchase from farmers the raw materials and to store the same, in order to increase Thriposha production.

He pointed out that the production of Thriposha, the supplementary food to infants and pregnant mothers in our country, has been severely curtailed due to the lack of cereals such as maize, soya and green gram.