NEW DELHI: Countering critics who have termed the economic package too little, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Saturday said the government has listened to all to unveil measures to stimulate the economy through institutions.With BJP spokesperson Nalin Kohli questioning her in a session aimed to arm party leaders with the perspective to counter the critics, Sitharaman said the liquidity flow will begin from June 1, while a number of notifications which had instilled fears among the banking officials have been withdrawn.
“There appears fear of 3Cs (CBI, CVC and CAG) among banking officials, which were discussed in a meeting, and a set of orders and notifications were identified, which have been withdrawn to ensure that there shouldn’t be apprehensions in taking genuine banking decisions,” said Sitharaman in response to Kohli to raising the issue of apparent reluctance to lend for fear of NPAs.
Stating that it’s too early to assess the impact of coronavirus on the economy, the minister said she had confidence in the entrepreneurs. “We still have another 10 months to go in the current financial year; we will see as we go along,” she said.
Kohli raised the concerns of the middle class, saying there’s a sense of being left out among the people who pay taxes on time. “We don’t go by the narrow definition of the middle-class of those salaried people in the urban centres. For us, the fishermen engaged in fishing activities and also those who are into the allied agriculture and food processing industries are also the middle class. Besides, the RBI has taken steps to address the EMI concerns of the salaried class,” said Sitharaman.
Kohli also raised the issue of the states’ finances coming under stress, to which the minister responded that the Centre’s revenue collections, too, had gone for a toss. “It’s true that the compensation to the states for December-January and February-March have not been given under the GST set-up. But as and when the Centre gets the revenue collections going, the states will be paid,” she said while listing out funds under various heads made available to the states to deal with the Covid-19 challenges.