Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman is releasing the fifth and final tranche of Rs 20 lakh crore stimulus package on Sunday.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday had announced the package amid the coronavirus crisis which has taken the entire nation in its grip.
PM Modi had told that the breakage of the package will be provided by the Finance Minister in different tranches and will contain different subjects.
In her last four press conferences, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman had briefed about the landmark reforms including MSME sector, agriculture, defence and aviation sector.
Nirmala Sitharaman on Saturday announced that FDI limit in defence manufacturing will be hiked to 74 per cent from 49 per cent.
The minister also said that some weapons and platforms will be banned for imports. These banned items can only be purchased from within the country, Sitharaman said.
The decision is taken with an aim to give a boost to government’s ‘Make in India’ in the sector of defence production.
Also, there will be indigenisation of some imported spares, she said adding separate budget provisioning for domestic capital procurement will be done which will reduce huge defence import bill.
Ordnance Factory Boards will be corporatised for better management and eventually get listed on the stock market, she said adding corporatisation is not privatisation.
For the time-bound defence procurement process and faster decision-making, project management unit (PMU) to support contract management will be set up.
Releasing the third tranche of package, Nirmala Sitharaman on Friday announced that the government will amend the six-and-a-half-decade old Essential Commodities Act to enable better price realisation for the farmers.
The move will ensure that the food items, including cereals, edible oil, oilseeds, pulses, onion and potato get deregulated, the minister said as she presented the third tranche of the 20 lakh crore stimulus package.
On Wednesday, Sitharaman said the Government has planned to infuse Rs 50,000 Crore liquidity by reducing rates of TDS, for non-salaried specified payments made to residents, and rates of tax collection at source (TCS) for specified receipts, by 25 per cent of the existing rates. This is in order to provide more funds at the disposal of the taxpayers. This reduction will be applicable for the remaining part of the FY 2020-21 i.e. from tomorrow till March 31, 2021.
During the second tranche, she announced a slew of incentives for migrant workers, farmers, street vendors and small traders among others in the second tranche of Centre’s Rs 20 lakh crore fiscal stimulus package to fight the Coronavirus crisis.