NEW DELHI: Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman is addressing the media, amid hopes of another round of stimulus to rescue the economy out of a historic contraction. Her press conference comes at a time when economists have called for the need for further impetus to aid a revival in an economy battered by the world’s biggest lockdown to curb the spread of COVID-19. The government’s last monetary and fiscal support of ₹ 21 lakh crore, called the Atmanirbhar Bharat package, was introduced in May this year. Many economists say that the Atmanirbhar package has largely failed to soften blow of the strict coronavirus lockdown as it focused on providing liquidity and collateral-free credit for small businesses but with little actual spending.
Highlights of Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman’s media briefing:
- Going to announce few new measures
- First, would like to give you a picture of economic situation, and impact on Atmanirbhar Bharat announcements made recently
- Active cases of COVID-19 have declined
- In last 10-15 days, there have been many measures and indicators showing recovery clearly happening
- GST collections were at ₹ 1.05 lakh crore in October, up 10% YoY.