Updated: October 21, 2020 4:55:23 pm
Union Minister Prakash Javadekar addresses a press conference on Cabinet decisions (PTI)
In an attempt to encourage spending during the festive season, the Center decided on Wednesday to award Rs 3,737 crore as a bonus to 30.67 lakh from central government employees not listed in the official gazette. The decision to award a productivity-linked bonus and a non-productivity-linked bonus for 2019-2020 was made at the Union Cabinet meeting.
At a press conference, Information and Broadcasting Minister Prakash Javadekar said that the bonus would be awarded in a single installment by direct transfer of benefits before Vijayadashami. “The bond, which will be delivered in a week, will encourage the middle class to spend and thus increase demand in the economy,” Javadekar said.
An ad-hoc or non-PLB bonus is awarded to 13.70 lakh Central Government employees not included in the official gazette.
A total of 30.67 lakh employees would benefit from the bonus announcement and the total financial implication will be Rs 3,737 crore. #DecisionsDeDecisions
(2/2) https://t.co/Ut3mNXj2H4
– GDP India (@PIB_India) October 21, 2020
Those who will benefit from this include 16.97 lakh unpublished employees of business establishments such as railways, post office, defense, EPFO, ESIC, etc. they will get PLB and the financial implication would be Rs 2,791 crore. Apart from them, 13.70 lakh from unpublished central government employees will get a PLB of Rs 946 crore, the government statement said.
The payment of bonuses to unpublished employees for their performance in the previous year is usually made before the Durga Puja / Dussehra season. The All India Federation of Railways had called a two-hour nationwide strike on October 22, demanding immediate disbursement of the bonus.
This comes after Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman last week announced a Travel License Grant Voucher (LTC) program, which can also take advantage of private sector employees, and a festival preview for government employees to stimulate consumer demand.
Under the LTC scheme, employees would have to spend three times the LTC fee component to purchase items that attract 12 percent or more of the goods and services tax (GST). What this effectively means is that if your LTC fee component is Rs 40,000, you have to spend Rs 1.2 lakh on goods falling by 12% or more of the GST slab to save tax on Rs 40,000. Through the LTC consumption boost plan, the government expects a demand generation of Rs 28 billion in the economy.
Under the festival’s advance scheme, all central government employees will receive an interest-free advance of Rs 10,000 which will be recovered in 10 installments. It will be delivered in the form of a preloaded RuPay card of the advanced value. The government expects to disburse 4 billion rupees under the scheme before March 31.
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