Economic Stimulus Package – Major announcements by Hon’ble Finance Minister – Day 5
Post published:April 7, 2020
Seven Steps in FM’s Final
Tranche
MNREGA
Rural and Urban Healthcare and Education during Covid -19
Business during Covid-19
Decriminalisation of Companies Act
Ease of doing business
PSUs and Policies
State Government and Resources
MNREGA
Job security for farmers during monsoon
Budget estimate was Rs 61,000 crores
Additional Rs 40,000 crores allotted
Health Related Steps that
have been undertaken
Rs 15,000 crore was released
Insurance cover of Rs 50 lakhs per person for health professionals
Made sure telemedicine comes into play
Capacity building exercises have been taken up
Epidemic Diseases Act was amended for protection of health care workers
Health
Getting ready for future health emergencies
Ramping up the health infrastructure
All districts to have infectious diseases block
Public health labs to be set up in all districts at the block level
Education
Tech-driven education for all
PM e-Vidya programme for multi-mode access
One nation one digital facility under DIKSHA for school education
One year-marked TV channel for every class
Extensive use of radio
Special e-content for Divyang children
Top 100 universities will automatically be allowed to start online courses by May 30, 2020
Manodarpan program for Psychosocial Support for Mental Health & Well Being of Students during the
COVID Outbreak and beyond
Businesses
Big boost for struggling businesses
Debts related to Covid will be excluded from default under IBC
No fresh insolvency case will be initiated for up to a year
For MSMEs, a special insolvency framework will be notified
Minimum threshold for insolvency raised from Rs 1 lakh to Rs 1 crore
Decriminalisation of
Companies Act
Government moves to decriminalise Companies Act defaults
7 compoundable offences altogether dropped and 5 to be dealt with under alternative framework
Ease of Doing Business
For Corporates
Direct listing of securities by Indian public companies in permissible foreign jurisdictions
Private companies which list non-convertible debentures on stock exchange not to be regarded as listed
companies
Including the provisions of Part IXA (Producer Companies) of Companies Act, 1956 in Companies Act, 2013
Power to create additional/specialized benches for NCLAT
Lower penalties for all defaults for Small Companies, One-person Companies, Producer Companies & Start Ups
Improvement in Rankings in ‘Starting a business’ and ‘insolvency resolution’ have contributed to the overall
improvement in India’s ranking on EoDB
Public Sector Units
New Public Sector Enterprise Policy introduced
All sectors to be now open for private players
List of strategic sectors requiring the presence of PSEs in public interest will be notified
In strategic sectors, at-least one enterprises will remain in the public sector but the private sector will also be
allowed
In other sectors, PSEs will be privatised
To minimize wasteful administrative costs, the number of enterprises in strategic sectors will be between one
to four, others will be privatised or merged or brought under holding companies
Supporting State
Governments
State net borrowings ceiling for 2020-21 is Rs. 2020-21 is Rs. 6.41 Lakh crore, based on 3% of Gross State
Domestic Product (GSDP)
75% thereof was authorised to them in March 2020 itself and timing is left to the states
States have so far borrowed only 14% of the limit authorised. 86% of the authorised borrowing remains
unutilized
Nevertheless, states have been asking for special increase in borrowing from 3% to 5%
In view of the unprecedented situation, Centre has decided to accede to the request and increase borrowing
limits of States from 3% to 5%, for 2020-21 only
This will give states extra resources of Rs. 4.28 lakh crore
Supporting State
Governments
Part of the borrowing will be linked to specific reforms
Reform linkage will be in four areas
One Nation One Ration Card
Ease of Doing Business
Power distribution
Urban local body revenues
A Specific scheme will be notified by department of expenditure on the following pattern:
Unconditional increase of 0.50%
1% in 4 tranches of 0.25%, with each tranche linked to clearly specified, measurable and feasible reform actions
Further 0.50% if milestones are achieved in at least three out of four reforms areas
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