Jan Dhan, Anti-Black Money Steps Major Achievements: Ministry

NEW DELHI: Listing its salient initiatives, the union finance ministry Sunday cited the Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana (PMJDY), the Varishtha Pension Bima Yojana (VPBY) and actions taken to curb black money as its major achievements in the seven months of the NDA rule.

“First major decision by the present government after taking over the reins of power in May 2014 was to constitute a Special Investigating Team (SIT) to implement the decision of the Supreme Court on large amounts of money stashed abroad by evading taxes or generated through unlawful activities,” the fianance ministry said in a statement here.

India has joined global efforts to combat tax evasion, including supporting the implementation of a uniform global standard on automatic exchange of information on a fully reciprocal basis, facilitating exchange of information regarding persons hiding money in offshore centres, it added.

Under the Jan Dhan scheme for fianacial inclusion, the government aimed to open 7.5 crore bank accounts by Jan 26, 2015. The target has now been revised to 10 crore.

“As on Dec 23, 2014, 9.91 crore accounts have been opened under PMJDY. As on Dec 1, the states of Goa, Kerala, Tripura and Madhya Pradesh and the union territories of Chandigarh, Puducherry and Lakshadweep have achieved 100 percent saturation,” the ministry said.

The statementy said the government has launched VPBY for the benefit of the vulnerable section of society with limited resources to provide a monthly pension ranging from 500 to 5,000 per month to senior citizens.

The government re-launched the Kisan Vikas Patra (KVP) to attract investments for the small savings scheme. The certificate can also be pledged as security to avail loans from the banks.

A Swachh Bharat Kosh (SBK) has been set up to attract corporate social responsibility (CSR) funds from industry as well as contributions from individuals and philanthropists, to achieve the objective of Clean India by 2019.

Besides, a ‘Nirbhaya Fund’ with a corpus of 2,000 crore has been created to ensure dignity and safety of girl children and women.

To boost the capital goods and automobile sectors, duty concessions have been extended up to Dec 31 on small cars, motorcycles, scooters, three wheelers and commercial vehicles, the statement said.

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