Purse strings opened for migrants, farmers, vendors

*Over Rs 2.30 lakh cr credit for farmers in second tranche of stimulus

*8 cr migrant workers to get free grain, pulses for two months

* 50 lakh vendors to be given Rs 10,000 working capital loan

Migrant workers a priority

BQ: “The government is not sitting idle. It has kept in mind and prioritised migrant workers. If I have not spoken about something, it is not as if the government has not planned for it. It will be there in the next package,’’Nirmala Sitharaman, Finance Minister

Sandeep Dikshit

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, May 14

The second tranche of the economic stimulus announced today by Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman sought to alleviate the lockdown-induced misery of migrant labour and street vendors, extend more credit to farmers and ease the repayment worries of the smallest borrowers in banks.

In monetary terms, the largest announcement was for farmers. The government will extend Rs 2 lakh crore of concessional credit to benefit 2.5 crore farmers. In addition, NABARD will provide emergency working capital fund of Rs 30,000 crore in addition to its budgeted refinance support of Rs 90,000 annually.

For the migrants, even with no ration cards, Sitharaman announced free supply of 5 kg foodgrain and 1 kg pulses per month for the next two months. The government has estimated the number of migrants at 8 crore and the cost for this exercise at Rs 3,500 crore. However, the onus is on the states for tracing these migrants.

She said states had been asked to enrol migrants returning to their villages in MGNREGA work for which the government had earlier enhanced the wage floor from Rs 182 to Rs 202 per day. MGNREGA has already generated work till May 13, which is 40 to 50 per cent more than that conducted in May last year, she noted.

However, the other two measures will benefit migrants in the long term. The first is to make ration cards nationally portable which Sitharaman hailed as “one classic example” of the Prime Minister’s accent on technology-driven systems. This will benefit 67 crore beneficiaries in 23 states. But Sitharaman was unable to convincingly explain how this system will work if two out of four people on the ration card migrate and the others stay back.

While this portability will be implemented by March 2021, the other proposal of providing affordable housing to migrants is still a blueprint. Sitharaman said the government was considering three options under the PPP (public-private partnership) mode of building rental and affordable accommodation.

For the middle income group, the government has extended an income credit-linked subsidy scheme for simple, affordable houses by a year to March 2021. Three lakh families have benefited so far under this scheme in the last three years and Sitharaman expects 2.5 lakh families to take up this offer in the Covid-affected year.

The government has allowed states to use Rs 6,000 crore of afforestation funds for providing work, she said.

Street vendors will get a special credit facility of Rs 5,000 crore within a month and Shishu Loans under the Mudra scheme have been given interest subvention on loans worth Rs 1.62 lakh crore for one year. This will benefit about 3 crore people.

However, both Sitharaman and Minister of State for Finance Anurag Thakur, who translated her observations into Hindi, were intent on establishing the government’s pro-poor and pro-farmer credentials by enumerating the steps taken so far. Sitharaman mentioned migrants several times in her address and pointed out that many of the facilities being extended to them by the states were actually bankrolled or facilitated by the Centre.

“The government is not sitting idle. It has kept in mind and prioritised migrant workers. If I have not spoken about something, it is not as if the government has not planned for it. It will be there in the next package,’’ said Sitharaman.