Our Correspondent / New Delhi
Presenting the Budget for the financial year 2019-20 in Lok Sabha today the minister outlined government’s achievements during the last five years. Mr. Goyal said The government is committed to double the farmer’s income in 2022. Keeping in view the distress in farm sector, the government has revised MSP in favour of hardworking farmers.
He said, small and fragmented land holding has led to declining in farm income. Therefore, to provide support to small and marginal farmers and improve their income a new scheme the Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi yojana has been introduced.
He said, farmers with less than 2 hectare land will be given 6,000 rupees per year as direct transfer. The scheme will benefit 12 crore farmers and will be implemented from this fiscal itself.
He said Rs 20,000 crore have been provided for current fiscal and also announced allocation of Rs 75,000 crore for the next fiscal.
Mr.Goyal said, instead of rescheduling of crop loans, those farmers severely affected by natural calamities will get 2% interest subvention and additional 3% interest subvention upon timely repayment.
The finance Minister said, for workers and labourers, a new scheme Pradhan Mantri Sharm Yogi Mandhan Yojana will provide assured Rs 3000 monthly pension in unorganised sector after 60 years of age.
The scheme will benefit 10 cr workers in the unorganised sector. He said, Ayushman Bharat, the world’s largest healthcare programme, was launched to provide medical care to nearly 50 crore people, resulting in Rs 3,000 crore savings by poor families.
The minister said so far 10 lakhs people have been benefitted under the scheme. Mr.Goyal also said the government has been providing cheaper drugs through Jan Aushadhi stores.
Highlighting steps taken up by the government to provide affordable health care to the poor, Goyal said 21 AIIMS (All India Institute of Medical Sciences) have been established or operating in the country, of which 14 have been sanctioned since 2014. The minister said 22nd AIIMS will be set up in Haryana.
The Finance Minister said, nearly 8 crores free LPG connections were planned to be provided to relieve women from the use of woodfire for cooking. He said, so far 6 crore connections have already been provided.
Finance Minister Piyush Goyal today said all identified 2.5 crore households will be energised by March 2019 as the task under the Saubhagya scheme has almost been completed.
He said as many as 2,48,19,168 families have already been provided electricity connection under the Rs 16,320 crore Pradhan Mantri Sahaj Bijli Har Ghar Yojana (Saubhagya) launched in September 2017.
The government had identified 2,48,47,762 unelectrified households for electrification by March 2019.
Mr. Goyal further said India is the fastest growing major economy in the world and that the GDP growth in the last 5 years had been higher than under any previous governments.
Mr Goyal said, the Modi-led NDA government contained double-digit inflation and the government has broken the back of high inflation.
Mr.Goyal said India has received massive foreign direct investment worth USD 239 billion in the last five years on account of a stable and predictable regulatory regime, growing economy and strong fundamentals.
Goyal said the fiscal deficit will be at 3.4 per cent of GDP this year. Goyal also said that current account deficit is likely to be 2.5 per cent of GDP this year.
He said, India is the fastest highway developer in the whole world, that is 27 kms of highways built each day. He said, projects stuck for decades, have been completed.
He said Sagar Mela will help faster handling of import and export. He said, installed solar generation capacity in India increased by 10 times in the last 5 years.
Speaking on defence sector, the Minister said, the government had promised to implement One Rank One Pension and they have already disbursed over Rs 35,000 crore after implementing the scheme in true spirit. He said, Defence Budget has been increased to Rs 3 lakh crore.
Mr Goyal said, Indian Railways operating ratio will improve to 95% for 2019-20 from 96.2% in 2018-19.
He said government hopes to create 1 lakh digital villages in the next 5 years. Jan Dhan, Aadhaar mobile, and direct benefit transfer have been game changers.
Goyal noted that Aadhaar is now near-universally implemented and helped ensure poor get the benefit of government schemes directly in their bank accounts.
Following the presentation of Interim Budget 2019-20 in Lok Sabha, a copy both in Hindi and English was laid on the table of Rajya Sabha by Finance Minister Piyush Goyal. Later, Chairman M Venkaiah Naidu adjourned the House. Both the Houses of Parliament will now meet on Monday.