PM Ujjwala Yojana: Centre has announced the continuation of the subsidy until March 31, 2025.
New Delhi: In a piece of great news for the beneficiaries of the PM Ujjwala Yojana, Union Minister Piyush Goyal has announced that the Cabinet has approved the continuation of the Rs 300 subsidy to the consumers until March 31, 2025. The total expenditure for this will be Rs 12,000 crore, he also said.
Goyal said the decision came a day before International Women’s Day.The Union Cabinet had in September last year approved the extension of the Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana for the release of 75 lakh LPG connections over three years, from 2023–24 to 2025–26. Provisioning of 75 lakh additional Ujjwala connections will take the total number of PMUY beneficiaries to 10.35 crore.
The Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana (PMUY) was started in May 2016 with the objective of providing clean cooking fuel to poor households across the country. Under PMUY, a deposit-free LPG connection is provided to adult women from poor households.
Watch:
#WATCH | Union minister Piyush Goyal announces that the Cabinet has approved the continuation of the Rs 300 subsidy to PM Ujjwala Yojana consumers till 31st March 2025. The total expenditure for this will be Rs 12,000 crores, he adds. pic.twitter.com/F65E80v2Hb
— ANI (@ANI) March 7, 2024
Cabinet Approves DA Hike
The Union Cabinet on Thursday approved a hike in Dearness Allowance for central government employees and Dearness Relief to pensioners by four per cent from January 1, 2024.
The decision comes ahead of the Lok Sabha elections, which are likely to be announced by the middle of this month.
Briefing the media about the cabinet decisions, Union Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal said 49.18 lakh employees and 67.95 lakh pensioners will benefit from the government decision.
He said the decision would cost Rs 12,868.72 crore per annum to the exchequer.
The cabinet meeting was chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
The additional instalment of Dearness Allowance (DA) and Dearness Relief (DR) to pensioners represents an increase of 4 per cent over the existing rate of 46 per cent of the basic pay/pension to compensate against price rise.
An official release said that the increase is in accordance with the accepted formula, which is based on the recommendations of the Seventh Central Pay Commission.
(With inputs from agencies)