The government on Thursday unveiled a Rs 1.70 lakh croreeconomic package involving free foodgrain and cooking gas to poor for the nextthree months, one-time doles to women and poor senior citizens, higher wages toworkers and measures to boost liquidity of employees as it looked to containthe impact of unprecedented nationwide lockdown.
Over 80 crore ration card holders will each get 5 kg ofwheat or rice and one kg of preferred pulses free of cost every month for thenext three months to ensure that poor are not hungry because of the close downof businesses.
Poor women, who got free cooking gas under the PradhanMantri Ujjwala Yojana during the last three years, will get free LPG refills inthe next three months to tide over tight finance following the nationwidelockdown, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said, adding this will benefit8.3 crore women.
Besides, 20.5 crore women Jan Dhan Account holders will getRs 500 per month for the next three months, while poor senior citizens, widowsand disabled will get a one-time cash dole of Rs 1,000.
For workers, the daily wage under the MNREGA has beenincreased to Rs 202 from Rs 182, benefiting 5 crore workers who stand to gainabout Rs 2,000 in all.
Also, the government will front-load Rs 2,000 payments tofarmers in the first week of April under the existing PM Kishan Yojana tobenefit 8.69 crore farmers.
With businesses closed during the lockdown, the governmentwill contribute employees as well as employer’s contribution to the providentfund for the next three months of companies with up to 100 employees with 90per cent earning not more than Rs 15,000. The contribution will be a total of24 per cent of eligible wages.
Also, workers will be allowed to draw a non-refundableadvance of 75 per cent from credit in provident fund account or three monthssalary, whichever is lower, she said.
Sitharaman said the limit of collateral-free loans to 63lakh women self-held groups is being doubled to Rs 20 lakh, impacting 7 crorehouseholds.
The free foodgrain and pulses are over-and-above theexisting entitlement through the public distribution system (PDS). The rationcard holders can take the foodgrain and pulses from the PDS in twoinstallments, she added.
“This measure will ensure no gareeb (poor) remainshungry,” Sitharaman said.
According to official data, the government has a total of58.49 million tonnes of foodgrain in the FCI godowns so far. Out of which, riceis 30.97 million tonne and wheat 27.52 million tonne.The foodgrain stock is much higher than therequired norm of maintaining a reserve of about 21 million tonnes as on April1.