Government readying an economic package

The government may come up with an economic package to prevent the COVID-19 pandemic from causing major harm to the economy.

Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman said as a first step they were addressing the compliance related issues and an economic package covering issues of concern to the industry would be announced separately later.

"The economic package is going to be announced soon," Sitharaman said while announcing a set of compliance related issues including extension of dates for filing IT and GST returns.

Earlier in the day the FM gave an indication about the package in a tweet.

"Even as we are readying an economic package to help us through the corona lockdown (on priority, to be announced soon) I will address the media at 2pm today, specifically on statutory and regulatory compliance matters Via video conference," said the tweet of the finance minister.

The Indian economy that had already slowed down before the outbreak of coronavirus, is in for a more difficult period in the coming months with businesses almost coming to a standstill. The finance ministry and the RBI have taken several steps to ensure that liquidity in the system remains intact. But Industry has called for more stimulus measures to fight depression like conditions setting in the economy. IANS