Amid heavily noted slowdown, FinMin assures to work on more measure revive the sagging economy

New Delhi, December 07: While the GDP growth rate has slowed down to more than six-year low of 4.5 per cent in the second quarter of the current fiscal from 5 per cent recorded in the first quarter, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Saturday affirmed that the government was working on more measures to revive the sagging economy.

 

"The government has taken several measures during August and September to boost the economy. the public sector banks have disbursed nearly Rs 5 lakh crore in the last two months to boost consumption in the hinterland", she said at the HT Leadership Summit yesterday.

 

 

"So there are ways in which for giving stimulus for consumption. We are adopting a direct method and also the method through which we are spending on infrastructure, whose spill over can go to core industries labour and so on," she said.

 

Asked if there could be more measures announced to bolster economic activity, she said, the government is working on more. On the Goods and Services Tax (GST) the Finance Minister said, the rate structure will have to be decided by the GST Council. "Eventually, the rates have to be rationalised", she added.

 

On November 16, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman had invited some GST taxpayers, Chartered Accountants and Tax practitioners to assess first-hand the response to the various GST returns especially the new Returns to be introduced w.e.f. 1st April 2020.

 

This initiative by the Finance Minister was widely welcomed by the entire tax fraternity and hailed as a step in the right direction for greater transparency in tax administration. Accordingly, Sitharaman decided that such interaction with stakeholders should be replicated nationwide on December 7 to get a much larger feedback on the new return system.