Sthitaprajnya Panigrahi

Owing to the novel coronavirus (Covid-19), many speculations have been made regarding the economic stability of the country. As the whole country remains under locked down, the market and business has come to halt due to almost negligible transactions at present.

 Addressing the general public about the recent fiscal amendments by the government, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitaraman has made some major announcements:-

For Companies

• Organizations with up to 100 employees or with 90 percent of the employees earning less than 15000 per month will be awarded Employee Provident Fund for employee and employer by govt. for 3 months.

• To benefit approximately 4.8 crore workers, Govt. has instructed to amend the PF scheme regulations to provide the employees with 75 percent of the salary or salary of 3 months, whichever is low, in advance.

For Farmers and Workers

• Aiming to benefit up to 8.69 crore farmers, the Govt. has decided to provide the farmers with the first installments of PM Kisan scheme.

• Govt. has also promised the direct transfer of funds to different category of citizens including farmers, differently abled persons, construction workers, and women coming under Jan Dhan Yojana, Ujjwala Scheme and any other self group helps.

• There will be an increase of per day MNREGA amount from Rs 182 to Rs 202, providing each worker an additional amount of Rs 2000 and helping almost 5crore families. 

• The central govt. has also instructed the state govt. to utilize the 31,000 crore funds from construction welfare fund to support 3.5 crores workers from construction sector.

For the Under-Privileged

• Up to 3 crore senior citizens who are below poverty line, widowed, and differently-abled are to be provided with an amount of Rs 1000 in two installments as a moral obligation.

• For people below poverty line, the Govt. has announced PM Gareeb Kalyan Scheme of 1.7 lakh crore with an expectation to cover approximately 80 crores people.

• Each member of the BPL households will be provided with 5 kgs of wheat and rice along with 1 kg of preferred pulse for the next 3 months. These facilities can also be availed in installments.

For the Women

• Similarly, all women having Jan Dhan accounts are to be provided with an amount of Rs 500 per month for a time period of 3 months.

• Women enlisted under Ujwala scheme will be provided with free gas cylinders for 3 months as well.

• Doubling the collateral loan amount up to Rs 20 lakh for women in self help groups govt. is expecting to benefit up to 7 crore rural households.