Demonetisation had no effect on Indian economy: Nirmala Sitharaman

Agencies
July 2, 2019

New Delhi, Jul 2: Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said economic growth is high on the agenda of the government and various reforms are being undertaken in many spheres to improve GDP growth.

India still continues to be the fastest growing economy and demonetisation has had no effect on the Indian economy, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman told the Rajya Sabha on July 2.

The Minister, while responding to supplementaries during the Question Hour, said the manufacturing sector has had a certain fall, but it is not attributable to demonetisation.

She said economic growth is high on the agenda of the government and various reforms are being undertaken in many spheres to improve GDP growth.

Ms. Sitharaman said “the moderation in growth momentum in 2018-19 is primarily on account of lower growth in ‘Agriculture and allied’, ‘trade, hotel, transport, storage, communication and services related to broadcasting’ and ‘public administration and defence’ sectors.”

“If the impact of low growth in certain sectors has impacted growth rate, particularly in agriculture and allied activities as also in financial and real estate and professional services, there has been a fall, particularly in agriculture based on third advance estimates, it is believed that there has been a 0.6% decline in the output.

“If the impact on the low growth is because of outcomes from these sectors, the manufacturing sector has had a certain fall but which is not attributable to demonetisation,” the Minister said.

‘India growing at the fastest rate’

She said in the last quarter, there could have been a fall and steps have been taken to improve the economy.

“But, we are still the fastest growing economy,” she said.

Ms. Sitharaman said if the United States’ growth has grown between 1.6, 2.2, 2.9 and 2.3% in 2016, 2017, 2018 and 2019 respectively, and China’s growth has also decelerated from 6.7, 6.8, 6.6 and 6.3%, India is still well above 7% at 7.3% growth.

“While the concern of member is well taken about the last quarter’s growth having come down, it is still India which is growing at the fastest rate and the figures are before us,” she stressed in response to a query from a member.

The Minister said as regards steps taken, the government has taken several steps in order that more money goes to people and that is why the PM’s Kisan Samman Yojna, the Pension Yojna, where money goes directly through Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) into the people’s hands, are activities through which people are getting the benefit.

“Over and above that, in order that institutions will have to extend more credit facilities for industry and for those entrepreneurs in the ground, the credit situation and also taking care of resolutional stressed assets through banks is also happening,” she said.

In her written reply, the Finance Minister said, as per estimates available from Central Statistics Office, growth of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) at constant prices was 6.8% in 2018-19, as compared to 7.2% in 2017-18 and 8.2% in 2016-17.

“Economic growth is high on the agenda of the government. Various reforms are being undertaken by the Government in many spheres to improve GDP growth. The key reforms in Governments new term include expansion to all farmers the cash transfer scheme ‘PM-Kisan’ providing an income support of ₹6,000 per year, which was earlier limited to farmers with a land holding of less than 2 hectares,” she said.

Along with this, the government has launched voluntary pension scheme for small and marginal farmers and small shopkeepers or retail traders, she claimed.

To give focused attention to issues of growth, Government has constituted a five-member Cabinet committee on investment and growth chaired by Prime Minister.

Comments

Sandesh Shetty
 - 
Wednesday, 3 Jul 2019

Those who put their money in Swiss bank wont feel any effect. Only poor, middle calss people suffered much. BJP, RSS people enjoyed that

Vinod
 - 
Wednesday, 3 Jul 2019

Another Feku's puppet. She is getting salary for spreading lies

Well Wisher
 - 
Wednesday, 3 Jul 2019

Dear Madam please. do not ever think the all Indians are stupid.

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News Network
January 21,2020

Jan 21: Indian policymakers may make it easier for companies to tap foreign funding, as a prolonged cash squeeze makes it tough for firms to borrow at home.

Investors are speculating about potential steps Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman could unveil when she presents the nation’s budget on Feb. 1. These measures may include freeing up firms to borrow at higher rates and offering tax breaks to global funds.

“The government will need to relax local rules to make it easier for Indian companies to raise debt overseas and tide over the funding crunch in the onshore market,” said Raj Kothari, London-based head of trading at Jay Capital Ltd. “At the same time, they need to ensure that the borrowers tapping offshore markets abide with stricter corporate governance so as to avoid further defaults.”

A prolonged crisis in India’s shadow bank sector and a pile of bad loans at traditional lenders is making it expensive for Indian companies, other than the best-rated firms, to access funding. The government has tried a series of measures to spur domestic credit, including providing so-called credit enhancement and allowing tiny firms to restructure debt.

Here are some steps Sitharaman may consider to spur foreign borrowing:

• She could raise the cap of 450 basis points above Libor, which limits overall foreign debt costs for Indian companies

• This could help lower-rated firms sell bonds abroad. Indian companies rated BBB currently borrow at more than 10%, about 3.8 percentage points more than their top-rated peers;

• Sitharaman could waive the withholding tax foreign investors need to pay on holdings of rupee-denominated debt sold by Indian companies abroad

• The waiver was offered between September 2018 to March 2019, but wasn’t extended as the highest global interest rates since the financial crisis deterred Indian borrowers. Since then, the three-month Libor has dropped by about 1 percentage point

• She could permit Indian property developers and housing finance lenders to sell overseas bonds for reasons beyond affordable housing projects

• New funding lines to the real estate sector, arguably ground zero of India’s economic slowdown, could help kickstart consumption and investment as the industry is the nation’s biggest job-creator.

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News Network
June 1,2020

New Delhi, Jun 1: The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) on Monday asked airlines to allot seats in flights in such a manner that middle seats are kept vacant to the extent possible.

However, if a flyer has been allotted the middle seat due to a high passenger load "then additional protective equipment like the wrap-around gown of the Ministry of Textile approved standards" must be provided to that passenger in addition to three-layered face mask and face shield, said the DGCA order, which has been accessed by news agency.

India resumed its domestic passenger flights from May 25 after a gap of two months due to the coronavirus-triggered lockdown. International commercial passenger flights continue to remain suspended in the country.

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News Network
July 16,2020

New Delhi, Jul 16: With the highest single-day spike of 32,695 cases and 606 deaths reported in the last 24 hours, India's COVID-19 tally on Thursday reached 9,68,876, informed the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare on Thursday.

The total number of COVID-19 cases includes 3,31,146 active cases, 6,12,815 cured/discharged/migrated and 24,915 deaths.

As per the Ministry, Maharashtra -- the worst-affected state from the infection -- has a total of 2,75,640 COVID-19 cases and 10,928 fatalities. While Tamil Nadu has a tally of 1,51,820 cases and 2,167 deaths due to COVID-19.

Delhi has reported a total of 1,16,993 cases and 3,487 deaths due to COVID-19.

Meanwhile, as per the information provided by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), 1,27,39,490 samples have been tested for COVID-19 till 15th July, of these 3,26,826 samples were tested yesterday.

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