Special Festival Advance Scheme

Features Of Special Festival Advance Scheme

• From the 6th pay commission, the system of giving advances for the festival to the Central Government employees has been abolished
• A special festival advance scheme has come into effect for the year 2020 only in order to increase demand in the market
• Under the scheme, the employees will get an advance on a prepaid Rupay debit card
• The employees are required to pay the amount of advance in 10 installments
• The budget for this scheme is Rs 4000 crore
• The monetary benefit received under this scheme will have to be spent before 31st March 2021
• There will be no interest in the special advance received by the employees.
• The central government has given Rs 12000 crore interest-free 50-year loan to the states for capital project

Application Procedure For Special Festival Advance Scheme

• First of all, you have to go to the official website of the scheme
• The home page will open in front of you
• On the homepage, you are required to click on apply now
• Now a new page will open in front of you where you are required to fill in all the important information
• Now you have to upload all the required documents
• After that you have to click on submit
• By following this procedure you can apply for a scheme

All Key facts and information about Special Festival Interest-Free Advance will be given to you in this article. Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman recently announced a new scheme named LTC Cash Voucher Scheme. If you are looking for the details of a special festival advance plan then you should read this article from beginning to end. The Central Government has launched the LTC Cash Voucher Scheme under the Special Festival Advance Scheme for government employees. Under LTC Cash Voucher Scheme, government employees can take advance up to Rs 10,000 without any interest. The LTC Cash Voucher Scheme is the first part of the Modi government’s plan to increase consumer demand in the festival season. The LTC cash voucher scheme will generate a demand of around Rs 28,000 crore and in the recession caused by Corona, the Indian economy will benefit greatly.

The ministry has provided with step-to-step procedure for the beneficiaries to avail the benefits of the scheme. This is good news for the central government employees. With the festival season coming ahead, people will shop more which will help in boosting the economy. The scheme can be applied online before 31 March 2022. This is a one-time scheme that is available till March 2022.

 Under the special festival advance scheme, the employees who are working for the central government will be granted some festival advance along with other advances. Advance on festivals was earlier removed but under the recommendation of the 7th pay commission. In 2020, due to the pandemic, many employees suffered to make the ends meet, so the government decided to provide special advances to the central government employees so that they can have a happy Diwali and can cherish other festivals.

The coronavirus pandemic had a huge impact economically on many employees. To restore the financial stability of the employees who were harshly hit by the pandemic, this generous scheme was launched. In this scheme, the government has provided central employees with Rs. 10,000 interest-free loan advance that they spend during the festival season. The advance is a one-time measure, which will be recovered by the government of India in ten installments. Central government employees will get Rs 10,000 advance which will be interest-free and can be spent on goods and services by the employees. This amount of Rs 10,000 will be available through a pre-loaded Rupay card issued by SBI.

The government stated that the government servants that are central government employees will be able to process the special festival advance scheme and for that the beneficiaries will be required to have prepaid cards from the State bank of India. The card will be used as the mode of payment as no other mode of payment is applicable under this scheme. The main objective of the scheme is to uplift the economic stability of the central government employees. Due to the pandemic, the financial condition of many employees was bad. This scheme will help to create demand in the economy by escalating the spending of the people.

Apart from the advance, the government will also give cash vouchers to the employees. The cash voucher is available for all non-food items. The items should be GST rated and should attract 12% or more tax. This cash voucher can also be used to avail of travel concession fares. The goods and services should be purchased in a digital mode and no cash should be involved in the transaction. The goods should be purchased from GST-registered outlets. The beneficiary of this advanced scheme will be central government employees.

Pros of scheme

There are several benefits of the Special Festival Advance scheme launched by the Ministry of Finance for the central government employees.

• The central government employees will be granted Rs.10,000 festival advance that they can spend during the festival season.
• Due to the outbreak of the Coronavirus pandemic, there has been a significant reduction in the spending of the people, therefore in order to generate more demand in the market, this Special Advance scheme was launched.
• With the help of the advance, the beneficiaries will spend more money in the market, this will boost the economic stability of the country.
• During festival seasons, more people are encouraged to spend. Therefore, the scheme aims at providing benefits to the employees and the overall economy of the country.
• The scheme will help in boosting capital expenditure in the economy.
• The beneficiaries have to pay back the advance to the government in ten installments.
• A prepaid Rupay card will contain the advance that can be spent on goods and services.
• This scheme is interest-free for the employees, to encourage spending among the employees.
• The central government aims to spend Rs. 4000 crores under this scheme.
• The state government is likely to disburse Rs. 4000 crores for the advance scheme.
• The scheme is likely to boost consumer demand by Rs. 8000 crores.
• This scheme is beneficial for the people to spend during festival seasons.
• Due to the pandemic, the consumer demand in the economy had declined as people were discouraged to purchased new products or services. The advance scheme will boost the demand as people will buy new products with the advance available.

The Special Festival Advance Scheme has been launched to boost the Indian economy in the festive season. Under the LTC Cash Voucher Scheme, all central government employees can take interest-free cash up to Rs 10,000 as a pre-rupee card to be spent till 31 March 2021, which will have to be repaid at a maximum of 10 installments. The scheme of festival advance was abolished on the recommendations of the 7th Pay Commission, but now it has been scrapped as a lump sum measure in the demand of the economy and purchasing power of consumers.

The main purpose of the government to provide the Special Festival Advance Scheme is to create demand in the economy. This Year the employees can get cash vouchers from the government. Cash vouchers can be used to start the travel concession fare drop-off. Only the GST-rated Items can be purchased through this card. All non-food items must be purchased using these vouchers. Employees can purchase items attracting 12% or more Goods and Services Tax (GST). you can purchase anything in digital mode from GST-registered outlets. For a period of every four years, employees are free to obtain LTC for any destination or even their hometown to provide travel incentives. Cash-in-lie-LTC central government payment will be Rs. 5,675 crore. Also, Rs.1,900 crore will be paid by other public sector undertakings and public sector banks.

Features of LTC Cash Voucher Scheme 

• The system of giving advances for the festival to central government employees has been abolished with the 6th Pay Commission.
• This special festival advance scheme has been implemented only for the year 2021 to increase market demand.
• The advance on prepaid Rupees debit card will be given to the employees under this scheme.
• Employees have to pay 10 installments in advance
• The scheme has a budget of 4000 crores rupees.
• Under this scheme, the employees have to spend the monetary benefit before 31 March 2021.
• The employees do not need to pay any interest on this special advance.
• The central government has given an interest-free 50-year loan of Rs. 12000 crore to the capital project to the states

Benefits Of Special Festival Advance Yojana

The following benefits will provide to the Central Government employees by the LTC Cash Voucher Scheme: –

• In Special Festival Advance Scheme, the following benefits will be provided to the employees by the Central Government:
• An interest-free advance of Rs 10,000 will be recovered in a maximum of 10 installments
• 10,000 rupees advances will be given as prepaid rupee card
• The benefits of the card and its expenses can be spent only till 31 March 2021.
• Under this advanced scheme, the government has decided to distribute Rs 4000 crore.
• If the state government Bhi participates in this Vitran, a distribution of Rs 8000 crore is likely.
• 50%, which is Rs 4000 crore, is estimated to be adopted by the states.
• The additional consumer demand generated will be Rs 8000 crore.

The ministry has provided with step-to-step procedure for the beneficiaries to avail the benefits of the scheme. This is good news for the central government employees. With the festival season coming ahead, people will shop more which will help in boosting the economy. The scheme can be applied online before 31 March 2022. This is a one-time scheme that is available till March 2022.