With the clamour for a financial stimulus package increasing across all sectors, will Prime Minister Narendra Modi announce the plan today? Modi is scheduled to address the nation at 8pm on Tuesday, in his second address on the COVID-19 crisis in a week.
“Even as we are readying an economic package to help us through the Corona lockdown (on priority, to be announced soon) I will address the media at 2pm today, specifically on statutory and regulatory compliance matters. Via video conference,” Sitharaman tweeted on Tuesday.
The economic task force for coronavirus set up by the Centre is headed by the finance minister. While Sitharaman has already held a number of meetings with other ministries and the industry, the Centre is yet to announce a fiscal stimulus package for its citizens. Meanwhile, media reports also suggested that the task force has not been constituted yet.
Normal life in the country has almost come to a standstill as the government has placed most of the coronavirus-affected regions under lockdown in the country. Hence, the demand for an economic package is louder than ever.
On Monday, HDFC’s Aditya Puri had urged the government to roll out a fiscal stimulus package to fight for the days ahead. He also asked the RBI to go for a repo rate cut.
Various other corporate leaders, including Tata Sons’ N. Chandrasekaran, Kotak Group’s Uday Kotak and TVS’s Venu Srinivasan, have also recommended to PM Modi to make payments to unorganised sector workers as many livelihoods are being affected in the current lockdown.
