NEW DELHI: Of the 107 social schemes and welfare programmes announced in the Union Budget for 2016-17, 43 were implemented and 4 partially implemented by the ministries concerned, work on 59 was in progress while one was dropped, said the Finance Ministry on Wednesday. "In view of implementation of GST, there will be a separate set of Appellate Tribunals operating. With the approval of the Finance Minister (Arun Jaitley), it has been decided to drop the proposal to create 11 new benches of Customs, Excise and Service Tax Appellate Tribunal (CESTAT)," said the ministry in a statement.Among the important proposals on which "action was completed" were providing cooking gas (LPG) connection for women members of the poor households. "As against the target of release of 1.5 crore LPG connections during 2016-17, more than 1.44 crore connections have been released under the scheme in 35 states/UTs. "As the government is committed to achieve 100 per cent village electrification by May 1, 2018, Rs 8,500 crore has been provided for Deendayal Upadhayaya Gram Jyoti Yojna and Integrated Power Development Schemes," said the statement.The ministry has released Rs 5,448 crore till December 26 for the twin energy schemes, which were partially implemented.To promote the Stand Up India scheme, banks had disbursed Rs.1,624 crore to 16,021 beneficiaries during the current fiscal after Prime Minister Narendra Modi unveiled it on April 5, 2016.

Source: Economic Times February 01, 2017 16:44 UTC