Announcing a fresh round of stimulus package and terming it as ‘Atmanirbhar Bharat 3.0’, Finance Minister laid down a total of 12 new measures to support the economy and industry, ranging from employment generation, collateral-free credit for stressed sectors to subsidised fertiliser for farmers.
She announced the Atmanirbhar Bharat Rozgar Yojana to incentivise creation of new employment opportunities during the Covid-recovery phase. The employment scheme effective from 1 October will be applicable to eligible new employees joining the EPFO-registered establishments and for those who exited these concerns during the Covid pandemic and drawing monthly wages of less than Rs 15,000.
In order to provide a further boost to rural employment, the government will provide an additional outlay of Rs 10,000 crore for the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Rozgar Yojana. The government will provide Rs 65,000 crore to farmers to ensure adequate supply of fertilisers in the upcoming crop season.
In a major decision to support the pandemic-hit industry, the government has also announced an Emergency Credit Line Guarantee Scheme (ECLGS 2.0) for providing much needed relief to stressed sectors by helping entities sustain employment and meet liabilities.
In a bid to boost housing sales, Nirmala Sitharaman announced an increase in the permitted differential between the circle rate and agreement value of housing units to 20 per cent from the current mandated limit of 10 per cent till 30 June. The increase in differential will be applicable in residential units of value up to Rs 2 crore. In another boost for infrastructure development, the government will invest Rs 6,000 crore in the NIIF (National Infrastructure Investment Fund) debt platform, which will provide infrastructure project financing of Rs 1,10,000 crore. Hope all these announcements end up yielding positive results.