The government on Wednesday introduced a grab of choices to impart momentum to the sputtering wheels of the economic system — three more airports, in addition to an earlier three, could be transferred to the non-public sector Adani group under 50-year rentals for modernization and renovation; more discoms will be capable of raise working capital loans to the extent of their needs from the public-zone PFC-REC below a unique liquidity window and clear the mounting dues to gencos; more MSMEs will find it feasible to get entry to NBFC funds.
Also, the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs cleared a proposal to hike the truthful and remunerative rate (FRP) of cane to Rs 285 per quintal for the 2020-21 marketing year beginning October 1 from the current Rs 275 but stopped short of raising the minimum selling price of sugar.
The cabinet relaxed the eligibility criteria for still-not-out-of-the-woods power distribution companies (discoms) to avail working capital loans under the Centre’s new Rs 90,000 crore liquidity infusion scheme. As in keeping with the one-time relaxation, public-zone sector-specific lenders PFC-REC can now lend to discoms even past the cap of 25% of preceding year’s sales imposed under the Ujwal Discom Assurance Yojana (Uday) scheme. Tamil Nadu and Bihar discoms are a few of the ones that will benefit from the flow, as these entities will now be able to increase loans to the extent of their expected necessities under the liquidity scheme.
The discoms are supposed to apply the loan amounts to clear their overdue — payment default of 60 days or more — to the generators. On an all-India basis, these dues stood at an astonishing Rs 94,546 crore at the end of March 2020, in step with the government’s ‘Praapti’ portal.
Paving the manner for Adani organisations to bag three more airports — Thiruvananthapuram, Jaipur, and Guwahati — the cabinet accorded its approval for leasing of these airports to the company for operation, control and development were given 50 years. Adani had emerged as the successful bidder within the global auction conducted through the Airports Authority of India (AAI) in November 2018.
The cabinet has accredited a proposal to set up a National Recruitment organization (NRA) that will conduct the Common Eligibility Test (CET) online to pick applicants to non-gazetted posts in the central government and public sector banks. The budget for 2020-21 had proposed the introduction of the NRA. The NRA will conduct the primary-stage test through the Staff selection commission, the Railway Recruitment Boards, and the Institute of Banking service personnel.
To improve the cash flow of MSMEs, whose bills against supplies are stuck for more than 90 days, the cabinet has decided to allow all non-banking financial corporations to take part in the trade receivables discounting system, in place of limiting it to only select NBFCs.
