More than 42 crore beneficiaries have been extended cash support through Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) totalling Rs 65,454 crore under the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Package (PMGKP) till June 19, the Finance Ministry said on Saturday.
The Rs 1.7 lakh crore PMGKP package was announced by Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on March 26 to protect weaker and most vulnerable sections of society from the impact of the nationwide lockdown due to Covid-19 outbreak.
Under the package, the Union government announced free food grains and cash payments to women and poor senior citizens and farmers. It’s swift implementation is being continuously monitored by the central and State Governments.
So far, the Government has transferred Rs 8,488 crore into the bank accounts of PM Ujjwala Yojana beneficiaries. Also, 8.52 crore free Ujjwala cylinders have been booked and delivered during April and May. As many as 2.1 crore cylinders have been booked in June so far of which 1.87 crore free cylinders have been delivered.
A ministry statement said that as of June 19, the Government has also released Rs 996.46 crore for the benefit of 65.74 lakh EPFO account-holder employees whereby the Centre had decided to make the entire 24 per cent PF contribution of both employers and employees for a further period of three months.
Moreover, 20.22 lakh members of EPFO have taken the benefit of online withdrawal of non-refundable advance from their EPFO accounts totalling Rs 5,767 crore.
The Government had also released the first instalment of PM-KISAN (Rs 16,394 crore) and transferred it to 8.94 crore identified farmers who got Rs 2,000 each directly in their bank accounts.
The Govt had also disbursed Rs 30,952 crore to women Jan Dhan account-holders till June 19. A sum of Rs 10,325 crore was disbursed to 20.65 crore such account- holders (100 per cent) as the first instalment of Rs 500 each. Moreover, Rs 10,315 crore had been credited to 20.63 crore women Jan Dhan account-holders (100 per cent) as the second instalment. A sum of Rs 10,312 crore was credited to 20.62 crore (100%) women Jan Dhan account-holders as third instalment.
In addition, the central government had also released Rs 2,814.5 crore to about 2.81 crore old-age persons, widows and disabled persons in two instalments. Each beneficiary received an ex gratia of Rs 500 each as the first instalment and another Rs 500 each as the second instalment. For each instalment, the Government disbursed Rs 1,407 crore to 100 per cent of the identified beneficiaries.
Also, 2.3 crore building and construction workers have so far received financial support totalling Rs 4,312.82 crore.
So far, 113 lakh tonnes of food grains have been lifted by 36 states/UTs for April and 37.01 lakh tonne of food grains have been distributed, covering 74.03 crore beneficiaries. Moreover, 36.42 lakh tonne of food grains have been distributed, covering 72.83 crore beneficiaries for May 2020 and 13.59 lakh tonne of food grains distributed to 27.18 crore beneficiaries by 29 states/UTs for June 2020.
Out of 5.8 lakh tonne of pulses allocated for three months, 5.68 lakh tonnes were dispatched to various states/UTs. A total of 3.35 lakh tonnes have been distributed so far to 16.3 crore of the 19.4 crore beneficiary households.