Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman Thursday announced 12 key stimulus measures to boost the economy saying that it is emerging strong amid the Covid-19 pandemic as key parameters of the economy are in the positive trajectory.
She said, these stimulus measures announced under the Atma Nirbhar Bharat 3.0 will provide a boost to employment, agriculture, infrastructure, manufacturing, housing and research and development of Covid-19 vaccine in the country.
Addressing the press briefing in New Delhi on Thursday, the Minister said, these announcements are in line with the earlier stimulus packages which were announced to effectively deal with the effect of Covid-19 pandemic. She said, the size of the stimulus being provided by the government as part of the 12 announcements, amounts to 2 lakh 65 thousand crore rupees. She added that these Atma Nirbhar Bharat stimulus measures cumulatively amounts to 15 per cent of the GDP.
Informing about the state of the economy, Finance Minister said, rise in PMI Index, energy consumption, GST collection, bank credit, FPI investment shows that India’s economy is doing better. She said, market capitalization and forex reserves are at an all time high which is a positive indicator.
Giving the details of the progress made under the AtmaNirbhar Bharat Abhiyan, she said, the measures taken under the Abhiyan resulted in good results. She informed that 28 States and Union Territories have been brought under the national portability of ration cards from the 1st September of this year. She said, portability of ration cards benefitted around 69 crore beneficiaries who can now pick the food grains from any fair price shop in any State. She further informed that more than one lakh 43 thousand crores rupees have been sanctioned to the farmers through Kishan Credit Card. She added that 25 thousand crore rupees have been disbursed for providing capital funding to farmers through NABARD.
Listing out the other key measures, she said, more than one lakh 18 thousand crore rupees worth of loans have been sanctioned to 17 States and Union Territories to increase the liquidity in the Discom sector. She said, a total of 25 thousand crore rupees have been provided as additional capital expenditure to the Ministry of Road Transport and Ministry of Defence. She informed that three thousand 621 crore rupees have been sanctioned to 11 states as interest free loans towards capital expenditure.
Announcing the 12 key stimulus measures, the Finance Minister said, a new scheme Atma Nirbhar Bharat Rozgar Yojana is being launched to incentivise creation of new employment opportunities during the Covid recovery phase. She said, the central government will provide subsidy for two years in respect of new eligible employees after 1st October of this year under the scheme. She said, the subsidy support will be credited upfront in Aadhar seeded EPFO account of eligible new employees.