New Delhi:Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Friday met ministers and officials of civil aviation, animal husbandry, tourism and MSME ministries to take stock of the situation following the coronavirus outbreak.
The finance ministry is compiling various demands of these sectors which are severely impacted by Covid-19, Sitharaman told reporters.
The ministry will hold an internal meeting on Saturday to firm up the action plan to deal with the crisis, she added.
Finance Minister said a relief package for the distressed sectors of economy will be announced very soon. She also indicated that it will be a comprehensive package that will cover several sectors rather than announcement of separate sector specific reliefs.
In response to a question about the stability of financial markets, that have seen bloodbath in the recent times due to the impact of novel coronavirus, the finance minister said the measures announced by the stock market regulator SEBI today will help in keepings the market stable.
“But what we are going to do, I can't pare it out to say that I am doing this for the markets and I am doing that for the unorganised sector like that. At the moment we are at the critical stage of collecting everybody's input,” she told reporters.
She, however, refused to give a timeline for announcing the relief package to deal with the adverse impact of the Covid-19 virus on Indian economy but confirmed it will be announced soon.
“We will try to do it as quickly as possible,” she said.
On Thursday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his address to the nation had said the government is setting up a 'Covid-19 Economic Response Task Force' to decide on relief package for sectors hit by the coronavirus outbreak.
Giriraj discusses package for livestock industry with FM
Union Minister Giriraj Singh held discussions with Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman about a relief package, including restructuring of loans, for livestock industry in the first meeting of the Economic Response Taskforce, formed to combat the economic effects of COVID-19 (coronavirus).
"Livestock industry has been hit badly because of the coronavirus outbreak. We discussed various kinds of measures, including loan restructuring, that can help people engaged in this sector," Singh, who is Minister of Animal Husbandry, Fisheries and Dairying, told reporters here after the meeting.
Indian poultry industry is alone worth Rs 1.5 lakh crore. More than 10 lakh small farmers are directly engaged in the poultry industry, while crores of people are indirectly dependent on this sector, he said.