Sharing the details of the stimulus package, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced relief measures across sectors to support economic growth.
PTI
To help the revival of the Indian economy battered by COVID-19, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Monday, June 28, announced a slew of measures, including a Rs 1.1 lakh crore credit guarantee scheme for improving health infrastructure, and enhancing the limit under the Emergency Credit Line Guarantee Scheme (ECLGS) by 50% to Rs 4.5 lakh crore for the MSME sector facing a liquidity crunch. Sharing the details of the stimulus package, the finance minister said this comprises eight relief measures and other eight measures to support economic growth. Health sector The Finance Ministry also announced an additional package of Rs 23,220 crore for the public health sector in India. The government announced a new scheme focused on paediatric care and on short term emergency preparedness with special emphasis on children and paediatric care and paediatric beds. A total of Rs 23,220 crore has been earmarked for one year and this will cover funding for short-term HR augmentation through medical students (interns, residents, final year) and nursing students; increasing availability of ICU beds, oxygen supply at central, district and sub-district level; and to ensure adequate availability of equipment, medicines; access to teleconsultation; and ambulance services. This will also be used to enhance testing capacity and supportive diagnostics and strengthen capacity for surveillance and genome sequencing. An amount of Rs 15,000 crore that was sanctioned to the health sector last year led to a 25 fold increase in COVID dedicated hospitals, Nirmala Sitharaman said. It was used in setting up 7,929 COVID health centres, 9,954 COVID care centres and it also led to a 7.5 times increase in oxygen supported beds, 42 fold increase in isolation beds, 45 fold increase in ICU beds. Boost for tourism In a bid to boost tourism, Nirmala Sitharaman said that when international travel opens up, the first five lakh tourist visas will be given free of charge. The benefit will be available only once per tourist and the scheme will be applicable till 31 March 2022 or till 5,00,000 visas are issued, whichever is earlier. Rs 100 crore has been sanctioned for this. “10.93 million foreign tourists visited India in 2019 and spent US $ 30.098 billion on leisure and business. The average daily stay for a foreign tourist in India is 21 days. Average daily stay in India is around $34 (Rs 2,400),” the finance minister said. The government has also announced financial support to over 11,000 registered tourist guides or travel and tourism stakeholders. Under the new loan guarantee scheme for COVID-19 affected sectors, working capital or personal loans will be provided to people in the tourism sector to discharge liabilities and restart businesses impacted due to COVID-19. This scheme will cover 10,700 regional level tourist guides recognised by the Ministry of Tourism and the tourist guides recognised by the state governments, as well as the 904 travel and tourism stakeholders (TTS) recognized by the Ministry of Tourism. Loans will be provided with a 100% guarantee and while travel and tourism stakeholders can avail a loan of up to Rs 10 lakh per agency, tourist guides licenced at the regional or state level can avail a loan of Rs 1 lakh. There will be no processing charges, and the foreclosure prepayment charges have also been waived, the Minister announced. There is no additional collateral requirement, she added. Guarantee cover for projects Nirmala Sitharaman announced a Rs 1.1 lakh crore loan guarantee scheme for COVID affected sectors. Of this, Rs 50,000 crore has been sanctioned for the health sector, to be used to scale up medical infrastructure and will target underserved areas. The government also announced a guarantee cover for expansion and new projects related to health or medical infrastructure in cities other than the eight metropolitan cities. The guarantee coverage will be 50% for expansion projects and 75% for new projects. The focus is on aspirational districts, and for these districts, the guarantee cover of 75% is for both new projects and expansion. This is applicable for a maximum loan of Rs 100 crore and the guarantee duration will be up to 3 years. The interest rate has been capped at 7.95%, where it would otherwise have been 10-11%. The guarantee will be by the National Credit Guarantee Trustee Company Limited. Of the Rs 1.1 lakh crore, an amount of Rs 60,000 crore has been sanctioned for other sectors barring health and medical infrastructure. For these, the interest rate has been capped at 8.25% and decisions will be taken at a later stage based on evolving needs. ECLGS An additional Rs 1.5 lakh crore limit enhancement has been done for the Emergency Credit Line Guarantee Scheme (ECLGS) scheme. The existing limit for the ECLGS scheme, announced as part of Rs 20-lakh crore Atmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyan package in May 2020, was Rs 3 lakh crore. Last month, the finance ministry expanded the scope of the Rs 3 lakh crore ECLGS by including concessional loans to hospitals for setting up on-site oxygen generation plants. Besides, the validity of the scheme was extended by three months to September 30 and or till guarantees for an amount of Rs 3 lakh crore are issued. The last date of disbursement under the scheme has been extended to December 31. Under the ECLGS 4.0, 100% guarantee cover was given to loans up to Rs 2 crore to hospitals, nursing homes, clinics, medical colleges for setting up on-site oxygen generation plants. The interest rate on these loans has been capped at 7.5%, which means the banks can offer loans less than this ceiling. Atmanirbhar Bharat Rozgar Yojana extended The government also announced the extension of the Atmanirbhar Bharat Rozgar Yojana, from June 30, 2021, till March 31, 2022. The scheme, which was launched on October 1, 2020, aims to incentivise employers for the creation of new employment and the restoration of loss of employment through EPFO. The approved outlay is Rs 22,810 crore for 58.50 lakh estimated beneficiaries. The subsidy is provided for two years from registration for new employees drawing monthly wages less than Rs 15,000 for both employer's and employee's share of contribution (total 24% of wages) for establishment strength upto 1000 employees. It will cover only the employee’s share in case the strength of the establishment is more than 1000. Till June 18, Rs 902 crore has been given to around 21.42 lakh beneficiaries spread across 79,577 establishments, the Finance Minister said. Pradhan Mantri Gareeb Kalyan Anna Yojana extended The Finance Minister also announced the extension of the Pradhan Mantri Gareeb Kalyan Anna Yojana (PMGKAY) which was announced last year in March as a food relief package for the poor. The scheme, launched initially for the period from April to June 2020, was extended till November 2020. The total cost of the scheme in 2020-21 was Rs 133,972 crore. The scheme was relaunched in May 2021 due to the second wave and to ensure food security of the poor and vulnerable, and now, it has been extended till Diwali 2021. Five kg of food grains will be provided free of cost to the beneficiaries from May to November 2021. The estimated financial implications are Rs 93,869 crore, bringing the total cost of the scheme to Rs 2.27 lakh crore, the finance minister said. Other highlights → To fight malnutrition and to improve farmers' income, the government has said that the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) has developed biofortified crop varieties having high nutrients like protein, iron, zinc, vitamin-A. These variants are tolerant to diseases, insects pests, drought, salinity, and flooding. Early maturing and amenable to mechanical harvesting have also been developed and 21 such varieties of rice, peas, millet, maize, soyabean, quinoa, buckwheat, winged bean, pigeon pea and sorghum will be dedicated to the nation. → The Finance Minister also said that an additional Rs 14,775 crore fertilizer subsidy will be provided over and above the Rs 85,413 crore budgeted for DAP & P&K fertilizers. This includes Rs.9,125 crore additional subsidy for DAP and Rs 5,650 crore additional subsidy for NPK based complex fertilizer. → The government also announced a Rs 77.45 crore package for the revival of the North Eastern Regional Agricultural Marketing Corporation (NERAMAC). → The government has also proposed to provide additional corpus to the NEIA Trust over five years to allow it to underwrite additional Rs 33,000 crores of project exports. The NEIA Trust has supported 211 projects of Rs 52,860 cr in 52 countries by 63 different Indian Project Exporters till March 31, 2021. > The government has also sanctioned Rs 19,041 crore to set up broadband services in each village through the BharatNet PPP Model and this scheme has now been expanded to cover all Gram Panchayats and inhabited villages.
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