Centre to give 3 months pension in advance to senior citizens: The Centre will give three months’ pension in advance to nearly three-crore widows, senior citizens and differently-abled, in the first week of April amid the lockdown over the novel coronavirus pandemic, officials said on Friday.
The move is a part of the series of relief measures being announced by the government in wake of the country’s economy hit hard by the coronavirus outbreak and the ongoing lockdown.
Under the National Social Assistance Program (NSAP), a monthly pension is being given to the poor senior citizens, widows and persons with disabilities.
Earlier in the day, the Reserve Bank of India allowed banks to put on hold EMI payments on all term loans for three months as it slashed the cost of fresh borrowing by cutting policy interest rate by steepest in more than 11 years, joining the efforts of the government to counter the economic fallout of the fast-spreading coronavirus pandemic.
RBI, which brought forward by a week the key meeting of the monetary policy committee, also announced steps to boost liquidity worth 3.2 percent of the gross domestic product and said it will retain its accommodative stance as long as it is necessary to revive growth and mitigate the impact of coronavirus on the economy.
On Thursday, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced ₹1.7-trillion package for the poor hit by the lockdown that went effective from 25 March 2020 for 21 days. Centre rolled out the relief package, amounting to about 1% of its gross domestic product, marking an aggressive attempt to limit the economic damage caused by the virus and tackle the loss of livelihood of millions of poor.
The Centre has decided to give three months’ pension in advance to all the 2.98-crore beneficiaries by the first week of April, according to the officials.
As per the NSAP, Rs 200 per month is given to senior citizens from 60-79 years of age and Rs 500 per month to 80 years and above.
For the differently-abled, the pension is fixed at Rs 300 per month up to 79 years of age and Rs 500 for 80 years and above.
Besides this pension, Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman had on Thursday announced an ex gratia amount of Rs 1,000 over the next three months and it will be given in two instalments.
This is over and above the pension that has been given on a monthly basis.
