Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman Announces New Schemes On LTC And Special Festival Advances
New Delhi, India
Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced of availing travel vouchers and special festival advances to the government employees on Monday. The minister announced that the travel vouchers could be availed in cash form by the employees if travelling isn’t possible for them amidst the pandemic period.
Focusing on the consumer demand, the minister said that that the money which the employees would receive can be used to buy products containing 12 per cent or GDP more than that. The scheme will be an addition to the consumer demand by March 31, 2020 of ₹36,000 crore.
The government employees can spend the cash voucher of Leave Travel Concessio (LTC) via digital mode before 31st March 2021, only at the places where GST is registered. Non- food items can be purchased with implemented GST digitally from the GST registered outlets, as per the Finance Minister. The public sector companies such as banks run by the states can also avail this scheme as per the government and the cost for them will be ₹1,900 crore. The benefits provided will cost about ₹5,675 crore to the government. The Special Festival Advance Scheme has also been reintroduced as a festival advance which can be utilized only till March, 31.
Finance Minister stated that an interest free advance will be provided to the employees and officers of the central government as a one-time measure. In this scheme the employees will be paid an advance of ₹10, 000 via RuPay debit card which would be recoverable in 10 installments by March 31. An estimated value given by the government on the scheme states about ₹4,000 crore to be utilized in LTC scheme.
Mrs. Sitharaman has also announced a ₹12, 000 crore interest free 50- year loan to all the states in order to spend on the capital projects for boosting the country’s GDP. The government has assured to give the north-eastern states ₹1,600 crore of 50-year interest free loans and also announced that Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh will be given ₹900 crore. Other states in the country will also receive loans of ₹7,500 crore in references to their share in evolution of Finance Commission. Adding to this, the Finance Ministe3r stated that the amount will be disbursed in two parts and after the complete utilization of the first disbursement the second will be given.
In the FY 2020, the GDP contraction recorded of about 23.9 percent downfall in Aril –June period when the pandemic caused lockdown all over the nation. The scheme in reference to boost of consumer demand is expected to generate about ₹28,000 crore from which ₹19,000 crore will be expectedly infused by the center.