New Delhi: Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman while addressing at a press conference on Friday assured that the government has taken concrete measures to implement a planned economic strategy for achieving the five trillion dollar GDP goal by 2024.
The measures taken include enabling retail credit by supporting non-banking finance companies (NBFCs) and housing finance companies (HFCs), clearing all government dues including those of public sector units, supporting micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) via bill discounting and tax refunds.
“The government has been working for the economy where it is needed. Results have started showing for the (economic) reforms we have taken,” she said.
Chief Economic Advisor K V Subramanian said that a total sanctioned support of Rs 4.47 lakh crore to NBFCs and HFCs includes Rs 1.29 lakh crore for pool buyouts of assets. 62 per cent of dues of 32 central public sector enterprises have been cleared in a span of 2 months.
“The continuous liberalisation has resulted in record foreign direct investment inflows of 35 billion dollars in the first half of 2019-20 as against 31 billion dollars in the first half of 2018-19,” he said.
Corporate taxes have also been brought down to 15 per cent. “Given a large market and large labour force, these tax rates make India more attractive than other countries.”
“Within two days of cabinet approval, 17 proposals worth more than Rs 7,000 crore were approved. Proposals worth Rs 20,000 crore will be approved over the next two weeks under the partial credit guarantee scheme,” he said.
The government has also taken steps to boost investment, support real estate, credit expansion, corporate tax and bank recapitalisation.