Three welfare schemes announced in Puducherry Budget to cost exchequer ₹225 crore annually

The implementation of three big-ticket welfare schemes in Puducherry — monthly subsidy for LPG cylinder; ₹ 1,000 monthly pension to women heads of BPL families and ₹50,000 as fixed deposit in the name of newborn girl child — will push the revenue expenditure by around ₹225 crore during 2023-24. The schemes were announced by the All India N R Congress-led National Democratic Alliance government.

The implementation of three big-ticket welfare schemes in Puducherry — monthly subsidy for LPG cylinder; ₹ 1,000 monthly pension to women heads of BPL families and ₹50,000 as fixed deposit in the name of newborn girl child — will push the revenue expenditure by around ₹225 crore during 2023-24. The schemes were announced by the All India N R Congress-led National Democratic Alliance government.

Details of the schemes available with the government showed that implementation of ‘Chief Minister’s scheme for grant of subsidy for LPG cylinder to all the eligible BPL and APL ration cardholders,’ would cost the exchequer around ₹110 crore during this financial year.

The LPG cylinder scheme, for which administrative sanction was given last week, would enable BPL families get a subsidy of ₹300 per month per 14.2 kg cylinder and APL families ₹150 per month for the same quantity of cooking gas.

The subsidy would be for a maximum of 12 LPG cylinders per year. The amount would be disbursed to the bank accounts of the beneficiaries on the basis of monthly certified booking list obtained from gas agencies through nodal officers, said a government notification.

As per records available with Civil Supplies Supplies Department, there are around 3.58 lakh ration card holders in the Union Territory. Of the total, around 1. 54 lakh beneficiaries belong to BPL category and the remaining are APL consumers. The disbursement of subsidy to both the categories would cost the government around ₹110 crore annually, an official said.

The other scheme to cost the exchequer most is the decision to provide ₹1,000 monthly assistance to women heads of BPL families in the 21- 55 years age range who are not receiving any other monthly assistance of the government.

The first phase, which Chief Minister N. Rangasamy launched in January, covered around 13,000 beneficiaries. Now, the Women and Child Welfare Department has identified 56,000 more beneficiaries for the scheme under the second phase. In the current financial year, the government would incur an expenditure of ₹90 crore for implementing the scheme, the official said.