The government has announced a package of ₹6,000 a year for farmers holding up to 2 hectares of land, under the Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi scheme.
Presenting the Interim Budget for 2019-20 in the Lok Sabha, Finance Minister Piyush Goyal said that the income will be transferred directly to the bank accounts of small and marginal farmers in three equal installments of ₹2,000 each, and will be funded fully by the Central government. At least 12 crore farmers are expected to directly benefit from this move.
This will be enforced retrospectively from December 2018 and the first installment will soon be paid out after compiling the lists, said Mr. Goyal. An amount of ₹75,000 crore has been set aside for this initiative, as compared to an allocation of ₹60,000 crore for MNREGA.
According to experts, the Interim Budget was expected to contain an income support package for farmers in the range of ₹1.5 lakh crore.
