1.7 Lakh Crore Relief Package: Support mechanism for poor by Ministry of Finance

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On 26th March 2020, the Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced 1.7 Lakh Crore package. The package was announced to help the poor and needy to tackle the 21 days lockdown because of the epidemic situation of problems arising due to Coronavirus or we can say COVID 2019. The package was announced under Prime Minister Gareeb Kalyan Scheme. The main and important 10 segments of this package are –

  1. The announcement of a medical insurance cover of Rs 50 lakh per person for the ones who are working in the fight against the deadly coronavirus outbreak that includes doctors, nurses, and sanitation workers.
  2. Direct cash transfers for eight categories of beneficiaries that includes –
  3. Farmers
  4. MNREGA
  5. Poor widows
  6. Poor pensioners
  7. Self Help Group & Jan Dhan Yojna yojana holder women
  8. UJJAWALA scheme holder
  9. Organized sector workers
  10. Construction workers
  11. Farmers will get the first installment of Rs 2,000 under the Kisan Samman Nidhi.

What is Kisan Samman Nidhi ?

  • Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi  is a Scheme of central government with full funding from the Government of India.
  • The Scheme came into effect from 1.12.2018.
  • Under this Scheme, there is monetary support of Rs.6000/- yearly provided to all farmer families throughout the country in three equal installments of Rs.2000/- each every four months.
  • The meaning of family in the Scheme – husband, wife and minor children.
  • The full responsibility of identification of beneficiary families is with the State / UT Governments.
  • The money is directly transferred to the accounts of the beneficiaries.
  • For enrollment, the farmer is required to approach the local patwari or revenue officer or Nodal Officer nominated by the State Government.
  • The Common Service Centres (CSCs) have also been given power to do the registration of the farmers for the Scheme.
  • Farmers can also do their self-registration through the Farmers Corner in the portal.
  • Farmers can rectify their names in the database as per their Aadhaar card through the Farmers Corner in the portal.
  • Farmers can know the status of their payment through the Farmers Corner in the portal.
  • The government raised the wages under the Mahatma Gandhi Employment Guarantee Act scheme from  Rs 182 to Rs 202.
  • The Finance Minister said women holding bank accounts under the financial inclusion scheme Jan Dhan will get an ex-gratia amount of Rs 500 per month for the next three months.

Pradhan Mantri Jan-Dhan Yojana (PMJDY), a national Mission for financial inclusion to ensure access to financial services. Accounts opened under are being opened with Zero balance.

  • The government said the supply of five kg of either rice or wheat and one kg of lentil of choice without any cost to poor households every month for three months, in addition to the existing five kilograms of wheat/rice announced earlier.
  • The government also announced collateral-free loans worth up to Rs 10 lakh for women self-help groups under the Deen Dayal Upadhyaya National Rural Mission scheme.

Deen Dayal Antyodaya Yojana (DAY) is to uplift urban poor folks by enhancing sustainable livelihood opportunities by skill development. The scheme is the integration of the National Urban Livelihoods Mission (NULM) and National Rural Livelihoods Mission (NRLM).

  • It also made the limit applicable to the existing scheme to Rs 20 lakh.
  • The government announced something for the organized sector also. The Centre said it will pay EPF contribution on behalf of both the employee and the employer for three months for certain small companies. The government said companies with up to 100 employees in which 90 percent of the staff is paid less than Rs 15,000 per month will be entitled to receive this benefit.
  • It will also permit withdrawals of up to 75 percent of non-refundable advance or three months of wages from the EPF account, whichever is lower, a move likely to benefit 4.8 crore subscribers.

Submitted by –

Bibhanshu Mishra

Student reporter, INBA

Reporters committee