Govt to waive stamp duty for hawkers on loan

The Maharashtra government will waive stamp duty on the bank papers with regard to Rs 10,000 loan to be given to hawkers and street vendors under the Pradhan Mantri Street Vendor's AtmaNirbhar Nidhi.

The state Cabinet will take up the proposal on Thursday. The government's move comes a day after Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray asked the BrihanMumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) to conduct a survey on the new hawkers.

A senior minister told Free Press Journal, ‘’The street vendors and hawkers have been hit hard due to the lockdown declared on March 22 this year in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic outbreak. After the government’s decision to relax the curbs, these street vendors and hawkers have resumed their activities. The Centre has done its part by announcing the scheme. The state government wants to help these street vendors and hawkers by exempting them from the payment of stamp duty on bank transaction.’’

He said the urban development department has moved the proposal which will be cleared by the Cabinet at its Thursday’s meeting.

For this loan, no collateral will be taken by the lending institutions. All vendors need to do digital transactions. They will get a cashback offer too.

The Pradhan Mantri Street Vendor's AtmaNirbhar Nidhi is fully funded by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs with the objectives to facilitate working capital loan up to Rs 10,000 for the street vendors and hawkers. They can now avail Rs 10,000 loan scheme ‘AtmaNirbhar Nidhi’ through about 3.8 lakh common service centres (CSCs) in the country.

The scheme will incentivise the vendors for regular repayments, and reward digital transactions. It will help formalise the street vendors and open up new opportunities to this sector. The CSCs will help vendors’ enrolment in the scheme.

source https://www.freepressjournal.in/mumbai/govt-to-waive-stamp-duty-for-hawkers-on-loan