Special festival advance scheme for central government employees
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman today addressed the media on key economic issues. The following schemes are announced for Central Government Employees in this meeting :
- The interest-free advance of Rs 10,000 under the Special Festival Advance Scheme to be paid back in 10 instalments.
- The one-time disbursement of Special Festival Advance Scheme is expected to amount to ₹4,000 crore; if given by all state governments, another ₹8,000 crores is expected to be disbursed. Employees can spend this on any festival.
- Special Festival Advance Scheme for non-gazetted employees is being revived as a one-time measure, for gazetted employees too.
- All central govt. employees can now get an interest-free advance of Rs.10,000, in the form of a prepaid RuPay Card, to be spent by March 31, 2021
- Special Festival Advance Scheme is being revived as a one-time measure. All central govt. employees can now get interest-free advance of Rs. 10,000, recoverable in maximum 10 installments: Finance Minister
- Employees will get pre-loaded Rupay Card of the advance value
- Under LTC Cash Voucher Scheme, government employees can opt to receive cash amounting to leave encashment plus 3 times the ticket fare, to buy items that attract GST of 12% or more. Only digital transactions allowed, GST invoice to be produced, said Sitharaman.
- Under the previous Special Festival Advance scheme only non-gazetted officers were eligible to avail benefits of the scheme but this time all central government employees will be eligible for the scheme, Ms Sitharaman added.
- The government also allowed its employees to spend travel allowances that are an income-tax-exempt part of their salaries on goods and services, Ms Sitharaman told a news briefing.
“This is expected to create a consumer demand of about ₹ 28,000 crore,” she said
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