FM Nirmala Sitharaman says second tranche for migrant labourers, farmers and poor
New Delhi: Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Thursday said the second tranche of economic stimulus package will be for the benefit of migrant workers, street vendors and small farmers.
The finance minister said 3 crore marginal farmers have already availed Rs 4 lakh crore of loans on concessional rates.
Sitharaman said Rs 10,000 crore has been spent in the last two months on creating 14.62 crore man-days of work under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MNREGS) to help migrant workers.
Announcing the second tranche of economic stimulus package, she said the work has been offered to 2.33 crore wage seekers till May 13.
About 40-50 per cent more persons have been enrolled as compared to May last year, she said.
On reforms in pipeline, she said the government is for universal right to minimum wages and wants to remove regional disparity through a national floor wage.
Government to give free foodgrain supplies to migrant workers for next two months and 8 crore non-PDS card holders to get 5 kg of grains/person.
12,000 self-help groups (SHGs) have produced more than 3 crore masks and 1.2 lakh litres of sanitizers during #COVID19 period. 7,200 new SHGs for urban poor have been formed during the last two month says Nirmala Sitharaman.
Government to launch a scheme for affordable rental housing for migrant workers/urban poor to provide ease of living by converting government-funded housing in cities into Affordable Rental Housing Complexes (ARHC) under PPP mode through concessionaire, says finance minister.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi had on Tuesday announced a cumulative package of Rs 20 lakh crore (nearly 10 per cent of GDP) to provide relief to various segments of the economy. This included Rs 1.7 lakh crore package comprising of free foodgrains and cash to poor for three months announced in March, and Rs 5.6 lakh crore stimulus provided through various monetary policy measures by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI).
The remaining of the Rs 20 lakh crore package is being announced in tranches -- Sitharman had in the first tranche on Wednesday unveiled a Rs 5.94 lakh crore plan that mostly comprises off-budget items such as Rs 3 lakh crore of credit line to small businesses as support to shadow banks and electricity distributors.
Off-budget items do not result in any outgo from the government exchequer but these will aid in easing liquidity constrains for businesses once the lockdown is lifted.
