Tag Archives: Nirmala Sitharaman

Finance Minister, Nirmala Sitharaman has announced Emergency Credit Line Guarantee Scheme 2.0 (ECLGS) for the 26 stressed sectors identified by Kamath Committee, which include tourism, aviation, hotels & restaurants. Under ECLGS 2.0, banks would be able to provide collateral-free, fully guaranteed loans to borrowers on capped interest rates. It supports companies with outstanding dues of Rs 50-500 crore as on 29th Feb, and they would be able to borrow up to 20% of their outstanding dues as on 29th Feb, with a loan tenor set at 5 years. Also there will be a one-year moratorium on principal repayment. The scheme will be available till March 31, 2020.

Setting up of an Indian Institute of Heritage and Conservation with the status of a deemed university under the Ministry of Culture, has been proposed by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in her budget speech. Prahlad Singh Patel, Minister of State (I/C), Tourism and Culture, has expressed his happiness with this announcement and has said, “The much-awaited Indian Institute of Archaeological and Conservation was announced in the Budget. This will enable trained, qualified persons to conserve manuscripts, including monuments, museums. All partner institutions will benefit.”

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced the Union Budget today, where she shared that the Government will take steps to hike FDI cap in aviation. She also said that India will enter aircraft financing and leasing activities. For tourism, it was announced that the Government will build 17 iconic sites to encourage arrival of tourists in India. It was also mentioned that the GST process will be simplified. A massive railways modernisation programme will also be launched this year. Apart from that, the government will undertake strategic divestment of Air India and other PSUs this fiscal. They will also work towards consolidating non-finance central PSUs via mergers and raise foreign shareholding till maximum limit in PSUs. Government has set ₹1.05 lakh crore divestment target for Financial Year 2020. Government has decided to open Indian embassies and high commissions in countries where India doesn’t have a resident diplomatic mission, and under this scheme it has approved opening of 18 new embassies in Africa and will open four new embassies in 2019. Other highlights of the budget include—125,000 km of road to be upgraded over next 5 years at a cost of 802.5 billion rupees; expansion of Swachh Bharat mission to undertake sustainable sold waste management in every village; making of PAN card and Aadhar card interchangeable for ease of taxpayers.