FM Nirmala Sitharaman to announce 3rd tranche of measures related to Rs 20 lakh crore Atmanirbhar Bharat package

New Delhi: Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman will address a press conference at 4 pm at National Media centre on Friday to announce the third tranche of the Atmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyan economic package of Rs 20 lakh crore.

On Thursday (May 14) Sitharaman announced the second tranche of measures related to Atmanirbhar Bharat. The FM 2nd tranche of package laid focus on migrant workers, street vendors, small traders, small farmers.

For migrant labour, FM announced additional food grain to all the states/UTs at the rate of 5 kg per migrant labourer and 1 kg Chana per family per month for two months i.e. May and June 2020 free of cost.

She also announced that pilot scheme for portability of ration cards will be extended to 23 states. By that, 67 crore beneficiaries covering 83% of the PDS population will be covered by national portability of ration cards by August 2020. 100% National portability will be achieved by March 2021.

FM said that government will provide interest subvention of 2% for prompt payees for a period of 12 months to MUDRA Shishu loanees, who have loans below Rs 50,000. The current portfolio of MUDRA Shishu loans is around Rs 1.62 Lakh crore. This will provide relief of about Rs 1,500 crore to Shishu MUDRA loanee.

In the second tranche, FM announced Rs 70,000 crore boost to the housing sector, middle-income group through Credit Linked Subsidy Scheme under PMAY (Urban).

Other announcements included Rs 6,000 crore for creating employment using CAMPA funds, Rs 30,000 crore additional emergency working capital for farmers through NABARD, and Rs 2 lakh crore credit boost to 2.5 crore farmers under Kisan Credit Card Scheme.

On Wednesday (May 13) Sitharaman announced the first tranche of measures related to Atmanirbhar Bharat. The FM gave details of 15 new and some enhanced measures to revive businesses. She announced a host of fiscal and regulatory measures for MSMEs, Real Estate, NBFCs, EPF, and Discoms.

Sitharaman has said that the Rs 20 lakh crore economic package is to spur growth and build a self-reliant India. The package was finalised after consulting various stakeholders.

It may be noted that PM Modi in his speech had emphasised that bold reforms are needed to make the country self-reliant so that the impact of crisis such as COVID can be negated in future that ranges from supply chain reforms for agriculture, rational tax system, simple and clear laws. He also pointed that measures must be in place to attract investment and further strengthen ‘Make in India’.