Tamil Nadu Congress Committee president K.S. Alagiri condemned the Central government for setting up a new fund ‘PM-CARES’ and seeking funds for Corona relief measures ignoring an already existing fund the Prime Minister’s National Relief Fund that has been in existence since 1948.
In a statement, Mr. Alagiri slammed the Centre and questioned why every scheme was being projected with the Prime Minister’s name and said this attitude was not good for democracy.
Mr. Alagiri said the existing PMNRF had a corpus of ₹3,800 crore that is lying unspent. Even in 2018-19, only ₹212 crore was spent from this fund. Contributions to this fund is 100% tax free, he pointed out.
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“There is already a fund in existence for 72 years for fighting such emergencies without selectively promoting any Prime Minister . What is the need to boycott that fund and create a new one to promote the Prime Minister? The Tamil Nadu Congress severely condemns this,” Mr. Alagiri said.
Mr. Alagiri also slammed the Centre for reducing interest rates on small savings deposits and the Provident Fund. “The interest on small savings has been slashed to 7.1%. Never before in the last 40 years has the interest rate been reduced to such a low. People invest in small savings schemes because of good interest rates and high security. But with this move, the government has shaken people’s confidence in the schemes and this will lead to a setback in the future for such savings,” he said. He also condemned the reduction in the PF interest rate