Pongal cash gift of ₹3,000, hike in welfare assistance set to push expenditure for Puducherry government

On top of the immediate additional requirement of around ₹100 crore towards disbursement of ₹3,000 to all ration cardholders as Pongal gift, the monthly expenditure of the government is set to increase by around ₹20 crore from next month following the decision to disburse the enhanced amount of monthly assistance to women heads of BPL families and pension for old age and destitute persons in Puducherry.

After days of consultation, the Lieutenant Governor on Tuesday accorded sanction for grant of ₹3,000 as Pongal assistance to all ration cardholders in the Union Territory. The figure, which is on a par with the amount given by the DMK government in Tamil Nadu as Pongal gift, was finalised after considering suggestions to raise the assistance amount in the range of ₹4,000 to ₹5,000.

There are around 3.69 lakh ration cardholders in the Union Territory. Barring government employees and green card holders, the cash assistance will be provided to others under allocations made in the Revised Estimates for 2025-26 by the departments of Women and Child Development, Civil Supplies and Consumer Affairs, Adi Dravidar Welfare and Scheduled Tribes Welfare.

“Since the provision was not budgeted, the Pongal assistance will be managed with allocations already made to the three departments. The money will be credited to the bank account of the beneficiaries soon,” said a government source.

The disbursement of Pongal assistance comes at a time when the government was in the process of rolling out budgetary commitments of increasing old age pension and financial assistance given to women heads of BPL families this month. In the current Budget, Chief Minister N. Rangasamy had committed to enhance monthly financial assistance to women heads of BPL families, in the age group of 21-54 years who were not covered by other welfare schemes, from ₹1, 000 to ₹2,500 and increase old age and destitute pension by ₹500. 

“Both the schemes have received administrative sanction, and we were planning to provide the enhanced allocations from January but that has now been deferred to February. The beneficiaries under the two schemes will receive the enhanced amount from next month,” the source said.

Around 72,000 women were receiving a monthly assistance of ₹1,000 after the scheme was announced in 2023 owing to which the government incurred an expenditure of around ₹6.5 crore every month. Now, with the hike in assistance to ₹2,500, the expenditure was to increase by ₹9.25 crore every month.

Similarly, around 1.91 lakh beneficiaries of old age and destitute pension will get a hike of ₹500 per month. The latest hike of old age pension was the second after the AINRC-BJP government came to power in 2021. The government has also added around 36,000 new beneficiaries under the old age pension scheme. The monthly expenditure for the scheme was set to go up by ₹10 crore every month from ₹45 crore to ₹55 crore.