Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman today (26th March 2020) announced Rs 1.7 lakh crore economic relief package for poor families & small businesses in the country hit badly by the coronavirus pandemic. Health insurance cover of Rs 50 lakh per healthcare worker including ASHA workers, doctors, paramedics, nurses as a medical insurance dealing with coronavirus outbreak will be given for 3 months. Also 5 kg wheat or rice and 1 kg of preferred pulses will be given free of cost every month for the next three months for 80 crore poor people.
Top Points of Covid-19 Relief Package by Nirmala Sitharaman:
Ann Yojana Scheme:
Under it, 80 crore poor people will be covered i.e. 2/3rd of India’s population. In addition to already allotted 5Kg of rice or wheat per person, an additional 5kg will be free. Additional 1kg pulse (according to regional preference) will be provided.
PM-KISAN Scheme:
Farmers will get the first installment of the PM-KISAN payment of Rs 2,000 in the first week of April via direct cash transfer. Thus, giving a relief to 8.69 Crore farmers.
MNREGA:
The wage has been increased from Rs 182 to Rs 202 per day. Thus, benefiting 5 crore families by increasing their wage by nearly Rs 2,000.
Ex-gratia Transfer Poor & Differently-abled:
Poor widows, differently-abled, and aged will be given an ex-gratia transfer of Rs 1,000 for the next three months, in two instalments through direct benefits transfer (DBT).
Jan Dhan Yojana:
About 20 crore women who hold such account will benefit from Rs 500 ex-gratia for the next three months.
Ujjwala scheme:
Women beneficiaries of the Ujjwala scheme will get three free cylinders for 3 months.
Women in SHGs: These women will get up to Rs 10 lakh collateral-free loans under the Deen Dayal Upadhyaya National Rural Mission scheme. The cap has been increased to Rs 20 lakh.
Organised sector workers:
EPF contribution of both employee and employer for the next three months will be paid by the Government of India. It will include all those establishments which have up to 100 employees, 90% of whom earn less than Rs 15,000 a month. The EPFO regulation will be amended to allow the withdrawal of up to 75% of their corpus as non-refundable advance, or three months' salary, whichever is less.
Construction workers:
The central government will direct the state governments to utilise Rs 31,000 crore in welfare fund to and protect these workers against any economic disruption. Thus benefiting 3.5 crore workers.
