Nirmala Sitharaman says govt policies, proactive steps helped India deal with pandemic

Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said various steps taken by the government since 2014 helped keep the economy and people afloat in difficult times and its targeted approach during the pandemic helped citizens.

New Delhi: Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Wednesday, speaking at the Iconic Day Celebrations, under the Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav said enabling policies and proactive steps taken by the Union government, including corporate tax cuts and digitization of the economy, helped the country deal with the unprecedented situation arising due to the pandemic.

The Finance Minister mentioned that various steps taken by the government since 2014 helped keep the economy and people afloat in difficult times and its targeted approach during the pandemic helped citizens. At a time, when the global economy is witnessing sudden inflation, with prices of essential commodities including grains, oil, and gas products soaring high, credit to the Russian invasion of Ukraine which has brought the global supply chain to a standstill, the minister in her address highlighted that the Centre took some of these 'major steps' without having any idea of the impending challenges, first the Covid-19 pandemic followed by a spike in inflation globally due to supply-chain disruption because of the Ukraine war.

“The heavy lifting, which actually happened (before the challenges), prepared us for a situation which no one could imagine," the minister said.

"Even after pulling the economy out, removing all the under-growth (post-2014), you still had challenges and in a way the three major steps which were taken -- reducing the corporate tax, formalization/digitization of the economy, IBC code, GST -- the heavy-lifting that happened prepared us for a situation which nobody could imagine," the minister added.

She said over the last 2 years, despite COVID, Indian retail investors have found online means to access the stock market and the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) has a role to play in investor education.

Sitharaman emphasized that when the Government looks at the targeted approach of providing assistance and takes the input from the ground and does so quickly, in time and in an open fashion, the impact is for all to see. In this context, she cited a study on Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Yojana (PMGKY) which brought out the probability of people cutting down consumption utilities by 75 per cent across the country. The study has also shown that the PMGKY reduced the probability of borrowing money by 67 percent of all respondents.

The Finance Minister underlined that the Department of Economic Affairs (DEA) has channelized external aid towards every region of the country, with the support of multiple multilateral institutions. India very smartly raised funds and distributed them not only for infrastructure building but also for livelihood prospects in each region. Sitharaman also appreciated the DEA’s efforts through the IDEAS project that spans so many countries and makes a difference to livelihood environment, especially for most of Africa and also the Island countries.