How many of benefits for COVID-19 Central relief Package are new?
Sai Krishna Muthyanolla
May 2, 2020
The Finance Minister announced a Rs. 1.7 lakh crore package to help the poor & vulnerable tide over the lockdown crisis due to COVID-19. A slew of measures was announced under this package. How many of these measures are new and how many are existing benefits?
Inthe wake of the spread of COVID-19 in India, the government of India had announced a nation-wide lockdown, effective from the midnight of 24 March 2020, for aperiod of 21 days which was later extended to 03 May 2020. It is now extended for two more weeks with certain relaxations.
Oneof the key influencing factors for this decision making is the economicsituation. The nation-wide lockdown has brought the whole nation to astand-still with little or no economic activity. This economic situation has affected people from different walks of life.
Respectivestate governments have announced various measures to help poor & vulnerablecitizens during the turbulent times. Factly has earlier written a story on this.  Similarly, even the centralgovernment has also announced measures during the lockdown.
Oneof the key measures was the relief package announced by Finance Minister,Nirmala Sitharaman for those impacted by the lockdown. We take a look at thisrelief package and ascertain, if these are new benefits that the government hasannounced specific to the lockdown.
Rs.
1.7 lakh crore relief package announced by the Centre
On 26 March 2020, the Union Minister of Finance, Ms. Nirmala Sitharaman announced a relief package worth Rs.1.7 lakh crores to aid the poor during the lockdown due to COVID-19. This package was announced under the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Yojana.
Thekey relief measures & assistance announced as part of this package includethe following.
Therelief measures announced in this package are meant to address the needs of thevarious marginalized sections. Few of the already existing schemes areleveraged to transfer benefits announced under the relief package. However, ithas to be noted that some of these measures are not fresh & specificmeasures, but are existing schemes recalibrated to provide relief.
Wetake a look at each of these relief measures in detail.
New
Insurance scheme for health workers fighting COVID-19
Incontext of COVID-19, the government has announced a new Special insuranceScheme specifically for the health workers engaged in fighting COVID-19 duties. They include – Safai karmacharis,ward-boys, nurses, ASHA workers, paramedics, technicians, doctors and other specialistswho are in COVID-19 duties.
Thehighlights include:
Thisscheme is totally a new one and tailor made in respect to COVID-19. MOHFW hasreleased the relevant
guidelines for this insurance scheme.
Although the initial announcement has particularly specified healthcare workers in Government hospitals and Health Care centres, the detailed guidelines issued also included those working in Private facilities and who are in COVID-19 duty.
Not
all the Cash transfer benefits announced in the Relief Package are new ones
Aspart of the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Package, there are different cashbenefits announced by the government. The beneficiaries include – farmers,women, widows and others.
Rs.
2000 benefit extended to farmers is not a new one
Thecentre has announced the first instalment of Rs. 2000 to be paid under PM KisanYojana for 2020-21 would be moved forward to be paid out in April 2020. Thefirst instalment was due between April and July which has now been paid inApril.  The government estimates that 8.7crores farmers would be benefitted by this.
PMKisan Yojana is an existing scheme under which, the farmers who are thebeneficiaries listed under this scheme are entitled for an annual amount of Rs. 6000 which is paid out in three instalments every 4months.
Hence,this not a new benefit being announced to the farmers. The first instalment isbeing paid early in the wake of COVID-19. These farmers would have eventuallyreceived Rs.2000 irrespective COVID-19. The overall benefit announced by centrefor this comes up to approximately Rs. 17.4 thousand crores.
Rs.
500 per month to women holding Jan Dhan accounts
Womenare one of the most effected and vulnerable sections of the population duringthe lockdown.  As a part of the reliefpackage, central government has announced ex-gratia of Rs. 500 to women accountholders under PM Jan Dan Yojana. This would be provided for a period of threemonths, i.e. a total amount of Rs.1500 per account holder.  The government estimates a total of 20.4crores beneficiaries for this cash benefit totalling to Rs. 31 thousand crores.This is a new and additional benefit announced by the centre.
Cash
support to Senior Citizens, widows and physically disabled
Anothercash benefit announced as part of the relief package is Rs.1000 to be paid to seniorcitizens (above 60 years of age), widows and the people under Divyang category i.e.physically disabled. The government has estimated that there are around Rs. 3crore such aged, widows and people under Divyang category.  The amount of Rs.1,000 is the overall paymentfor the next three months.
Thisis a new benefit announced and not related to any existing scheme and theamount of Rs.1000 would be paid out in two instalments of Rs. 500 each. As perthe estimated number of beneficiaries, this comes to around Rs. 3 thousandcrores.
Payment
into PF account for low wage earners
Wageearners who earn less that Rs.15,000 per month are eligible for a cash transferinto their PF accounts.  The caveat hereis that they ought to be employed with businesses whose workforce is less than100 with 90 % of the employees having salary less than Rs.15,000 per month. Thestated intent by the government is to support those who are at the risk oflosing employment.
Theproposition by the government is to pay 24% of the monthly wages into the PFaccounts for next three months. Government has allocated Rs.5 thousand croresfor this.
Furtherin respect to EPF, government has announced that it will make
amendments to include ‘Pandemic’ as one of the reasons to allowfor non-refundable advance of 75% of amount or three months wages (whichever islower) from their PF accounts. About 4 crore workers who are registered underEPF can take benefit from this.
Increase
in MNREGA wages from 01 April 2020
UnderPM Garib Kalyan Yojana, Centre has announced that MNREGA wages would beincreased to Rs. 202 from Rs. 182 per day, i.e. an increase by Rs.20.  As per the statement, it would be an annualbenefit of Rs. 2000 per year per beneficiary provided they are given 100 daysof employment.  Approximately 13.62crores families may benefit from this measure.
However,any amount received through MNREGA would be based on the work done and Rs.2000additional benefit per year is assuming that the families work for 100 days.  The government has not highlighted how itplans to provide work under MNREGA especially during the lockdown.
State
Governments directed to utilize amount available in Construction workers
welfare funds for aiding construction workers
Constructionworkers are directly impacted by the lockdown. They also forma a major portionof the migrant Labour. To provide relief for them, during this period, theCentre has directed the State governments to utilize the funds available underWelfare Fund for Building and Other Constructions Workers.
Thisis an existing fund which is constituted under The Building & Other Construction Workers Act,1996. Furthermore, asper The
Building and Other Construction Workers Welfare Cess Act, 1996,cess can be levied and collected to provide funds for the Building & Otherconstruction Workers welfare boards in the aforementioned act.
Thegovernment states that there are around 3.5 crores registered workers underthis fund. Prior to the announcement of this relief package, Labour Ministryhas issued an advisory on 24 March, to the State governments to use the Cess Fund for the welfare ofConstruction workers. About Rs. 52 thousand crores are available in the fund. Inher announcement, the Finance Minister has stated that it would advise thestates to use Rs. 31 thousand crores from the fund.
Furthermore,the government has also directed the State Governments to utilize the fundsavailable under District
Mineral Fund for purpose of developing facilities for medical testing,screening and others for preventing the spread of COVID-19.  The details of the amount allocated under thishas not been provided by the government.
Provision
of Rice & Pulses and other non-cash benefits announced
Additional
Food Grain & Pulses provided free of cost
Asper the National
Food Security Act, the beneficiaries are entitled to Rs.5 kgs of grain perperson every month.  As per the reliefpackage announced by the government, the beneficiaries would be receiving anadditional 5 kgs of grain (Rice /wheat) and 1 kg of pulses for a period ofthree months without any additional cost. Nearly 80 crore individuals areexpected to benefit from this. The government has allocated Rs.45 thousandcrores for this.
Gas
cylinders free of Cost
8crore poor families can receive Gas cylinder free of cost for three months. Thebeneficiaries under Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana would be receiving threecylinders during the period April-June 2020.  This would cost the government around Rs.13 thousandcrores.
Increase
in ceiling on lending in SHGs
Thereare around 63 lakh Self Help Groups (SHGs) in the country that support 6.85crore households. As part of the COVID-19 relief package, government hasincreased the limit on the collateral free lending to Rs.20 lakhs from theearlier limit of Rs.10 lakhs.  However,this does not have any bearing on the cost incurred by the Central Governmentdue to this package.
Only
about 1 lakh crores of the 1.7 lakh crores new benefits
Ashighlighted through the story, few of the relief measures announced as part ofPM Garib Kalyan Yojana as a COVID-19 relief measure are newly announced by thegovernment, while few of them are already existing benefits.
Thenew benefits announced by the Governments come to around Rs. 1 lakh crores.
Thetotal announced package by the Central government was Rs.1.7 lakh crores. Thebalance includes already existing benefits and funds.
Therefore, although the overall package announced by Centre is Rs.1.7 lakh crores , the actual worth of benefits specifically made as relief due to lockdown amounts to around 60% of the package announced.
Featured Image: New benefits of COVID-19 Central relief Package