Finance Minister announces slew of measures | Fusion - WeRIndia

In order to boost the economy, Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced various measures.

She proposed to set up an organization to increase funds and enhance credit facilities to infrastructure and housing projects.

Sitharaman said that the finance ministry would work with the RBI to improve the domestic bond market.

Several steps are outlined by the minister including labour reforms and amendments to the bankruptcy law to improve investments.

As the automotive sector has slowed down, the minister said that automotive ancillary units that need stimulus are to be established.

Since electrical vehicles are being pushed by the government, there might be a reduction in the purchase of conventional vehicles.

In order to help MSME sector that faces liquidity shortage, the finance minister announced that pending GST refunds would be paid within 30 days.

In future, all GST refunds for MSMEs would be paid within 60 days from the date of application.

Sitharaman revealed that the government is mulling to amend the MSME Act to move towards a single definition.

She said that the MSME sector is one of the largest job creators in the country with the contribution of 29 per cent of the GDP.

She said that working capital loans would become cheaper. She added that despite the slash of Repo Rate, banks did not pass on the benefits to the customers.

Now banks have agreed to pass on the benefit to the customers, hence loans would become cheaper. Customers will see the reduction in their EMIs in their housing loans, vehicle loans and any other retail loans.

Banks also decided to launch repo-rate linked products.

A one-time settlement policy would be issued by the banks. This would help small enterprises and retail borrowers to settle their loans.

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