Finance Minister announces second tranche of Aatmanirbhar Bharat economic package

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman today announced the second tranche of Aatmanirbhar Bharat economic package. The package focused on providing relief to migrant labours, street vendors, migrant urban poor, small traders self-employed people, and small farmers.

Following measures were announced today:

1. Free food grains supply to migrants for 2 months
   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 – May and June 2020 free of cost shall be allocated. Migrant labourers not covered under National Food Security Act or without a ration card in the State/UT in which they are stranded at present will be eligible.  8 Lakh MT of food-grain and 50,000 MT of Chana shall be allocated. The entire outlay of ₹ 3500 crore will be borne by Government of India.

2. One Nation One Ration Card
   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. This scheme will enable a migrant worker and their family members to access PDS benefits from any Fair Price Shop in the country. This will ensure that the people in transit, especially migrant workers can also get the benefit of PDS benefit across the country.

3. Scheme for Affordable Rental Housing Complexes for Migrant Workers and Urban Poor
   Government of India will launch a scheme for migrant workers and urban poor to provide ease of living at an affordable rent. Affordable Rental Housing Complexes will provide social security and quality life to migrant labour, urban poor, and students etc. This will be done through converting government-funded houses in the cities into Affordable Rental Housing Complexes (ARHC) under PPP mode through concessionaire; manufacturing units, industries, institutions, associations to develop Affordable Rental Housing Complexes (ARHC) on their private land and operate; and Incentivizing  State Govt agencies/Central Government Organizations on similar lines to develop Affordable Rental Housing Complexes (ARHC) and operate.

4. 2% Interest Subvention for 12 months for Shishu MUDRA loanees- Relief of ₹ 1,500 crore
   Government of India will provide Interest subvention of 2% for prompt payees for a period of 12 months to MUDRA Shishu loanees, who have loans below ₹ 50,000. The current portfolio of MUDRA Shishu loans is around ₹ 1.62 Lakh crore. This will provide relief of about ₹ 1,500 crores to Shishu MUDRA loanee.

5. ₹ 5,000 crore Credit facility for Street Vendors
   Street vendors will get bank credit facility for initial working capital up to ₹ 10,000 for each enterprise will be extended. This scheme will cover urban as well as rural vendors doing business in the adjoining urban areas. Use of digital payments and timely repayments will be incentivized through monetary rewards. It is expected that 50 lakh street vendors will be benefitted under this scheme and credit of Rs. 5,000 crore would flow to them.

6. ₹ 70,000 crore boost to housing sector and middle-income group through the extension of  Credit Linked Subsidy Scheme for MIG under PMAY(Urban)
   The Credit Linked Subsidy Scheme for Middle Income Group (annual Income between ₹ 6 and 18 lakhs) will be extended up to March 2021. This will benefit 2.5 lakhs middle income families during 2020-21 and will lead to investment of over ₹ 70,000 crores in the housing sector.

7. ₹ 6,000 crores for Creating employment using CAMPA funds
   Approximately ₹ 6,000 crores of funds under Compensatory Afforestation Management & Planning Authority (CAMPA) will be used for Afforestation and Plantation works, including in urban areas, Artificial regeneration, assisted natural regeneration, forest management, soil & moisture conservation works, Forest protection, forest and wildlife-related infrastructure development, wildlife protection and management etc.

8. ₹ 30,000 crores Additional Emergency Working Capital for farmers through NABARD
   NABARD will extend additional re-finance support of ₹ 30,000 crores for meeting crop loan requirement of Rural Cooperative Banks and RRBs. This refinance will be front-loaded and available on tap. This is over and above Rs 90,000 crore that will be provided by NABARD to this sector in the normal course. This will benefit around 3 crore farmers, mostly small and marginal and it will meet their post-harvest Rabi and current Kharif requirements.

9. ₹ 2 lakh crore credit boost to 2.5 crore farmers  under Kisan Credit Card Scheme to PM-KISAN beneficiaries
   Fisherman and Animal Husbandry Farmers will also be included in this drive. This will inject additional liquidity of  ₹ 2 lakh crore in the farm sector. 2.5 crore farmers will be covered.

Yesterday, the finance minister had announced relief measures for the MSME sector.