Bikky Khosla | 13 Oct, 2020
The Centre on Monday announced a host of stimulus
measures, raising hopes that the upcoming festive season would bring good news
for the economy. Noticeably, while the "Atmanirbhar Bharat" package unveiled
in May was targeted to address the supply-side concerns, the steps announced
now seek to push demand. No doubt, this is a welcome move, which, along with the
RBI monetary measures announced last week, is expected to push the economic
growth trajectory in coming months.
First, a 'LTC Cash Voucher Scheme' and a 'Special
Festival Advance Scheme' have been announced. Under the first scheme, Central
government employees get LTC in a block of four years, while under the second, gazetted
and non-gazetted officers can avail special interest free festival advance of
Rs 10,000, which will be recoverable in 10 installments. Experts view that with
millions of government employees likely to benefit from these schemes, consumer
demand will get a big boost as well.
The
Centre also announced a 50-year interest free loan worth Rs 12,000 crore for
states for capital projects, comprising Rs 1,600 crore for north-eastern
states; Rs 900 crore for Uttarakhand and Himachal; Rs 7,500 crore for other
states, and Rs 2,000 crore for states which meet at least three out of four
reforms announced earlier. In addition, it was announced that the Centre's
capital expenditures budget will be increased by Rs 25,000 crore this year,
along with Rs 4,13,000 crore already provided in the budget.
Meanwhile,
the central bank last week kept the repo rate unchanged at 4
percent, but it decided to continue with the accommodative
stance, and announced a slew of measures, including conduct of a Rs 1 lakh
crore on-tap Targeted Long Term Repo Operations, purchase of government
securities under open market operations for an aggregate sum of Rs 20,000 crore,
and extension of the dispensation of the enhanced HTM limit, etc.
These decisions
are highly appreciable.
I
invite your opinions.