New Delhi: Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman
on Friday said the third tranche of economic package will deal with
giving relief to agriculture and allied industries.
Speaking to media, she said the package would focus on
infrastructure and building capacities in the agriculture and allied
activities.
She said in the last two months several measures have been
taken to support farmers, including minimum support price (MSP) purchases
of Rs 73,300 crore during the two months of lockdown.
Also, Rs 18,700 crore in cash dole out under the PM Kisan
Fund transfers have been done and Rs 6,400 crore of payment in crop
insurance have been made.
Sitharaman said during the lockdown period, 560 lakh litre
per day of milk was procured by cooperatives against daily sale of
360 lakh litres per day.
Total 111 crore litres extra procured ensuring payment
of Rs 4,100 crore, she said adding a new scheme to provide interest
subvention of 2 per cent per annum to dairy cooperative has been implemented.
The interest subvention will unlock Rs 5,000 crore additional
liquidity, benefitting 2 crore farmers.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi earlier this week announced
a cumulative package of Rs 20 lakh crore (nearly 10 per cent of GDP)
to provide relief to various segments of the economy battered by
coronavirus lockdown.
This included Rs 1.7 lakh crore package comprising free foodgrain
and cash to poor for three months announced in March, and Rs 5.6
lakh crore stimulus provided through various monetary policy measures
by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI).
Of the remaining, the government has made two tranches of
announcements with a cumulative package of Rs 9.1 lakh crore, comprising
largely of credit lines to smaller firms, concessional credit to
farmers and support to shadow banking and electricity distributors.
Most of the first two tranches of the package are off-budget
and the government cash outgo is limited to just Rs 16,500 crore
on free foodgrain and affordable housing to migrant workers as well
as limited tax relief and marginal dole to some companies on employee
retrial benefits.
India had – beginning March 25 – imposed a three-week-long
nationwide lockdown, the most far-reaching measure undertaken by
any government to curb the spread of the pandemic.
The lockdown, which brought most of the economic activity
to a standstill as factories and businesses shut while rendering
thousands temporarily unemployed, has since been extended twice through
May 17, with some relaxations to allow the resumption of economic activity.
According to estimates, the lockdown may have led to 12.2
crore people losing jobs in April and consumer demand evaporating.
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