New Delhi: It said during the last six months of COVID-19 crisis while pushing the fiscal stimulus and packages to boost recovery process of the economy it has taken every possible measure to address the concerns of all the stakeholders and the citizens and has progressively extended help on both the demand and supply side to bring the economy back on track.
“Earnest efforts made by the government in last few months during coronavirus period have now started showing the green shoots and the month of September has exhibited credible signs of economic growth towards normalcy,” the ministry said in a statement. The ministry further said that to minimise COVID-19’s impact on the economy and people’s livelihood, the government is open to all possibilities and “the Finance Minister is not averse to taking any further measures to ameliorate the suffering of people”.
It said with phased relaxation of lockdown, the economy is gaining encouraging momentum. Increased business activities are imparting positive recovery of the economy as is evident in the month of September when the GST collection with Rs 95,480 crore was up by 4 per cent in the month (year-on-year). It said rail freight revenue earnings were up by 13.5 per cent, power consumption up by 4.2 per cent, and rising tractor sales, healthy monsoons and other growth indicators like PMI manufacturing, the index of eight core industries, E-way bills, exports, kharif sowing, cargo traffic and passenger vehicle sales, etc., are showing credible upward movement.
“All this makes the ministry confident that its effort to mitigate the impact of Covid-19 is on the right track towards the faster recovery of the economy to normalcy,” the ministry added. The government has effectively implemented two major stimulus packages — the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Package(PMGKP) without delay post lockdown on March 16, 2020, and the Aatmnirbhar Bharat Package (ANBP) of Rs 20 lakh crore on May 12, 2020, which was a “judicious mix” of fiscal and monetary policies to mitigate the negative impact of COVID-19 on the economy. The government implemented several measures under these packages which include relief measures for households and cash transfers to senior citizens, widows, disabled, women Jan Dhan Account holders, farmers; insurance coverage for workers in the healthcare sector; and wage increase for MGNREGS workers.
