Centre To Announce More Measures To Boost Economy: Nirmala Sitharaman

STAFF REPORTER

GUWAHATI: Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Thursday said the Centre will announce more measures to revive the country’s economy even as she refused to set a deadline to end the present economic slowdown.

Addressing a press conference at a city hotel here on Thursday evening, Sitharaman said even though India is a fast-growing economy in the world, the government recently announced a few measures after the industries expressed fear and apprehension about problems in the present economy.

Sitharaman said that the government has recognized that consumption needs a boost. “Spending on infrastructure will be a priority. Interactions with industry representatives and stakeholders are going on. We can frontload some public spending by the government,” she said. She also added that the government will clear all GST refunding within a few days.

The Union Finance Minister visited the city on Thursday with Minister of State for Finance Anurag Singh to hold discussions with tax administrators of NE States, tax consultants, trade organizations and captains of industries to promote entrepreneurship and industry. She said Prime Minister Narendra Modi has laid great emphasis on making tax administrators as facilitators of small, medium and large industries rather than enforcers of tax regimes.

Sitharaman, however, refused to set any deadline to bring the country’s economy back on track. She said it is too early to comment on outcomes of the recent measures announced by her to boost the economy. Last week, Sitharaman had unveiled a slew of measures ranging from a rollback of the additional surcharge on foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) and domestic investors which she had introduced at the Union Budget in July, to immediate recapitalization of public sector banks (PSBs) and a bouquet of measures to ease taxpayers’ woes.

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