New Delhi: India's Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman made several announcements at a press conference on Wednesday, explaining the specifics of the ₹20-lakh-crore package that Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced on Tuesday.
The package includes ₹3 lakh crores collateral-free automatic loans for businesses, particularly MSMEs. The loan will be provided to SMEs with a 12-month moratorium and will benefit 45 lakh units. For stressed MSMEs, the government will provision ₹20,000 crore subordinate debt for equity support, benefiting 2 lakh MSMEs.
Global tenders will be disallowed for tenders up to ₹200 crore for government procurement.
The EPF support announced earlier for businesses and employees has been extended till August 2020. This will provide liquidity relief of ₹ 2500 crore. EPF contribution for all businesses and workers have also been reduced to 10% from 12% for next three months.
Modi had announced the package estimated at 10% of the GDP that will, in his words, lead to 'Atmanirbhar Bharat' meaning a self-reliant, resilient India.
Sitharaman said that Modi laid out a comprehensive vision. "That was laid out after wide and deep consultation, with several sections of society, and different levels of govt up to the PM. Essentially, this is to spur growth and to build a very self-reliant India — which will be resting on 5 important pillars — economy, infrastructure, technology, demographics and demand."
Ms. Sitharaman said she will address issues of land, labour, liquidity and law. The intention of the ministry is to build local brands, and integrate them into global supply chain and not meant to look inwards and cut India to be an isolated country, but to continue contributing to the globe.
"Self-reliant India does not mean cutting off from rest of the world. Many reform driven steps are successfully taken by this govt, from 2014-19. For the poor, brought in DBT based reforms, based on Jan Dhan, Aadhaar and mobile technology, which has helped deliver to migrants now," she further added.
