Budget 2019: While presenting Interim Budget 2019, acting FM Piyush Goyal did not miss any chance to give credit to his government for various schemes and policies that benefitted the common man. The Interim Finance Minister spoke about Modi governments’ quick implementation of various recommendations made by the 7th Central Pay Commission.

The minister started with the New Pension Scheme and stated, “The New Pension Scheme (NPS) has been liberalized. Keeping the contribution of the employee at 10%, we have increased the Government contribution by 4% making it 14%.” This surely is a welcome move from the BJP government that is going to benefit the central government employees who conservatively invest in government schemes like NPS.

The ceiling of payment of gratuity has also been doubled from Rs 10 lac to Rs 20 lac now. Thereby, employees that are covered under the Payment of Gratuity Act 1972 can expect a hefty corpus.

The Modi government has also doubled the maximum ceiling of bonus given to labourers, making it Rs. 7,000 per month from Rs 3,500 per month; while the maximum ceiling of pay given to labourers has also been raised to Rs 21,000 per month from Rs 10,000 earlier.

Piyush Goyal also apprised the parliament of the fact that the minimum wages of labourers of all categories has increased exponentially by 42% during the past five years, “which is the highest ever”.

The acting FM also announced expanding the ceiling of Employee State Insurance - ESI's eligibility cover from Rs 15,000 per month to Rs 21,000 per month.

As for pension for labourers, the Minimum pension has been fixed at Rs 1,000 per month. “In the event of death of a labourer during service, the amount to be paid by EPFO has been enhanced from Rs 2.5 lakh to Rs 6 lakh,” stated Piyush Goyal, boosting the morale of this marginal section of the society.

Besides, the honorarium under Anganwadi and Asha Yojana has been hiked by close to 50% for workers of all categories.