The following are the measures announced by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Friday to boost economic growth and address distress in various sectors:
- Drops super-rich surcharge on FPIs, domestic investors on gains from stock market
- Upfront release of Rs 70,000 cr to PSBs; enhances lending capacity by Rs 5 lakh cr
- Banks to pass on rate cuts; to benefit all borrowers
- Reduction on EMIs for housing loans, vehicle and other retail loans
- To provide protection to honest decision-making by bankers for boosting lending
- Additional liquidity support to HFCs raised to Rs 30,000 cr
- Pending GST refunds to MSMEs to be paid within 30 days
- Amendment to MSME Act to move towards single definition to be considered
- Issue of IT orders, notices, etc through a centralised system to cut harassment
- Startups registered with DPIIT exempt from Income Tax, subject to certain conditions
- To set up a dedicated cell under CBDT for addressing the problems of startups
- BS-IV vehicles purchased till March 31, 2020 to be operational for registration period
- Allows additional 15 pc depreciation on all vehicles till March 31, 2020
- Delayed payments from Govt/CPSEs to be monitored by Expenditure Dept
- CSR violation not to be treated as criminal offence
- To set up an entity for credit enhancement for infrastructure, housing projects
- Task force to be set up to finalise the pipeline of infrastructure projects
- Further action on development of Credit Default Swap markets soon
- Simplification of KYC procedure to improve market access for foreign investors
- To announce more measures in the coming weeks for other sectors
- Announcement with regard to real estate sector to be made next week.
Photograph: ANI Photo.