Cabinet relaxes working capital norm for discoms to get loan under Rs 90k cr liquidity plan

After the Cabinet meeting, Union Minister Prakash Javadekar in a press conference said, "Power sector has a problem. There is a slump in power consumption. The bills are not being collected by them. PFC and REC have been allowed to give loans above the limit more the 25 per cent working capital limit. This will increase liquidity of the state discoms".

New Delhi: The Union Cabinet on Wednesday approved a proposal to relax working capital limit norm for discoms under the Ujwal DISCOM Assurance Yojana (UDAY) to get loans as part of Rs 90,000 crore liquidity infusion scheme.

After the Cabinet meeting, Union Minister Prakash Javadekar in a press conference said, "Power sector has a problem. There is a slump in power consumption. The bills are not being collected by them. PFC and REC have been allowed to give loans above the limit more the 25 per cent working capital limit. This will increase liquidity of the state discoms".

"The working capital limit is 25 per cent of last year's revenue. Now the limit is relaxed," he further said.

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman had in May announced the Rs 90,000 crore liquidity infusion into cash-strapped discoms, facing demand slump due to the lockdown to contain COVID-19.

However, some of the discoms were not eligible for getting loans under the package because they were not meeting working capital limit norms under the UDAY scheme.

Under the UDAY, the banks and financial institutions are restricted to lend working capital up to 25 per cent of a discom's revenue in the previous year.

The restriction was part of the UDAY scheme, which had been approved in November 2015 by the Union Cabinet for revival of debt-laden utilities.

Besides, the discoms can get loan under the package against the receivables from state governments to clear their dues. But some of the discoms did not have headroom under both the provisions.

Thus the power ministry had proposed to relax working capital limit norm so that these discoms can avail loans under the package to clear their dues.

Cabinet clears National Recruitment Agency to conduct common test for govt jobs

The Union Cabinet also approved the creation of National Recruitment Agency (NRA) for conducting a common eligibility test for central government jobs, initiating a "landmark reform" in the recruitment process.

Briefing the media on the Cabinet meeting, chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, I&B Minister Prakash Javadekar said it was a historic decision that will allow job-seekers take one common test and save costs and time spent on writing multiple exams.

This has been a major demand of the youths for many years which has been fulfilled, he said. Union minister Jitendra Singh termed it a revolutionary and landmark reform in the history of the country.

It will lead to ease of selection, ease of job placement and ease of living, especially for those sections of society that are considered disadvantaged, he said.

This will also help the poor and women who have to travel long distances for taking exams for various jobs, he said. The NRA will conduct a Common Eligibility Test (CET) to screen/shortlist candidates for the Group B and Group C (non-technical) posts.

The NRA will have representatives from the Ministry of Railways, the Ministry of Finance/Department of Financial Services, the Staff Selection Commission (SSC), the Railway Recruitment Board (RRB) and the Institute of Banking Personnel Selection (IBPS).

It is envisioned that the NRA would be a specialist body bringing the state-of-the-art technology and best practices in the field of Central government recruitment, an official statement said.

For now, the scores of the common test will be used by three major recruitment agencies, but other agencies would be included over a period of time.

In the long run, the CET score could be shared with other recruiting agencies in the Central government, state governments/Union Territories, Public Sector Undertakings and Private Sector, Singh said.

This, he said, would help them save costs and time spent on recruitment. The government has sanctioned a sum of Rs 1,517.57 crore for setting up the National Recruitment Agency (NRA), which will be headquartered in Delhi.

It will have a chairman of the rank of a Secretary to the government.

The expenditure will be undertaken over a period of three years. Apart from setting up the NRA, the costs will be incurred on setting up examination infrastructure in the 117 aspirational districts, the statement said.

At present, candidates seeking government jobs have to appear for separate examinations conducted by multiple recruiting agencies for various posts even though they have similar eligibility conditions.

The candidates thus end up paying fee to multiple recruiting agencies and also have to travel long distances for appearing in these exams.

Singh said the initial plan is to set up 1,000 exam centres across the country for conduction this common test. There will be at least one exam centre in each district and no candidate will now have to travel out of their district for taking this common exam, he said.

On an average, around 2.5 crore to 3 crore candidates appear in each of these examinations and a common eligibility test would enable them to appear once and apply to any or all of these recruitment agencies for the higher level of examination, he said.

National Recruitment Agency to be boon for youngsters, will boost transparency: PM

The National Recruitment Agency will prove to be a boon for crores of youngsters, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said, asserting that it will eliminate multiple tests and save precious time as well as resources.

"The #NationalRecruitmentAgency will prove to be a boon for crores of youngsters. Through the Common Eligibility Test, it will eliminate multiple tests and save precious time as well as resources. This will also be a big boost to transparency," Modi tweeted.

(PTI Report)