New Delhi: Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said Thursday that the second tranche of economic stimulus package will benefit migrant workers, street vendors, small farmers. The finance minister informed that three crore marginal farmers have already availed Rs 4 lakh crore of loans on concessional rates.
Nirmala Sitharaman’s announcements will certainly bring some relief to the migrant workers. They have been hard hit by the coronavirus crisis. Many have returned to their natives states staring at bleak futures
Prime Minister Narendra Modi had Tuesday announced a cumulative package of Rs 20 lakh crore (nearly 10 per cent of GDP). This was done to provide relief to various segments of the economy.
Break up of package
The package included Rs 1.7 lakh crore package comprising of free foodgrains and cash to poor for three months announced in March. It also included Rs 5.6 lakh crore stimulus provided through various monetary policy measures by 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 Wednesday unveiled a Rs 5.94 lakh crore plan. It 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. However, these will aid in easing liquidity constrains for businesses once the lockdown is over.
Free foodgrain for migrant workers for next 2 months
The finance minister announced that the government will give free foodgrain to migrant workers for next two months. She informed that eight crore non-PDS card holders will get five kilograms of grains/person. The government will spend Rs 3,500 crore on giving free foodgain to eight crore migrant workers.
Agencies
