SunstarTV Bureau: Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced a slew of measures on June 28, in a bid to provide relief to individuals as well as businesses amid the coronavirus pandemic.
As per the Finance Minister, there was also another set of 8 items pertaining to growth, exports and employees – of which six are new.
Here are some key highlights from the address:
–Rs 1.1 lakh crore loan guarantee scheme for COVID-affected sectors has been announced. Rs 50,000 crore and Rs 60,000 crore for health and other sectors.
–Credit line Emergency Credit Line Guarantee Scheme (ECLGS) given as part of Aatmanirbhar Bharat Package has been extended by another Rs 1.5 lakh crore.
New Credit Guarantee Scheme has been launched. This will give loans to small borrowers, through Micro Finance Institutions (MFIs), where the maximum loan to individuals will be Rs 1.25 lakh at an interest rate below 2 percent – as prescribed by the RBI.
–As for the tourism sector, the finance minister announced a new scheme to revive the sector. As per this, financial support will be extended to more than 11,000 registered tourist guides and Travel & Tourism Stakeholders (TTS). These TTS will receive up to Rs 10 lakh loan, while Licensed Tourist guides will get up to Rs 1 lakh loan.
–The Finance Minister also announced an additional Rs 23,220 crore for short-term emergency preparedness with an emphasis on pediatric care. This is on top of Rs 15,000 crore provided in the budget.
–Extra corpus to be provided to National Export Insurance Account to under-write Rs 33,000 crore worth of project exports over 5 years. As for exports, the FM announced a proposal to infuse equity in Export Credit Guarantee Corp over 5 years to boost export insurance cover by Rs 88,000 crore.
The government is also set to give an additional Rs 19,041 crore outlay to provide broadband to each village.
–FM Nirmala Sitharaman also announced an allocation of Rs 3.03 lakh crore for a revamped reform-based result-linked power distribution scheme. Of this, the Centre’s share would be Rs 97,631 crore.
— The tenure of the Production-Linked Incentive (PLI) scheme for large scale electronics manufacturing had been extended by one year. This scheme was to begin in 2020-21 and continue for a period of five years. The finance minister said that this scheme will now continue till 2025-26.
(Sources: Money Control)
