Policies, proactive steps aided India deal with pandemic: FM

NEW DELHI: Enabling policies and proactive steps taken by the government — including corporate tax cuts and digitisation of the economy — helped the country deal with the unprecedented situation arising due to the pandemic, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said on Wednesday.

Speaking at the ‘India’s Economic Journey@75’ event, being jointly organised by the Department of Economic Affairs and Sebi as part of the Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav iconic week celebration, she said India, with its strong fundamentals, has periodically faced challenges and emerged out of it.

The minister said various steps taken by the government since 2014 helped keep the economy and people afloat in difficult times and its targeted approach during the pandemic helped citizens. “Even after pulling the economy out, removing all the under-growth (post-2014), you still had challenges and in a way the three major steps which were taken — reducing the corporate tax, formalisation/digitisation of the economy, IBC code, GST — the heavy-lifting that happened prepared us for a situation which nobody could imagine,” Sitharaman said.

She said over the last 2 years, despite COVID, Indian retail investors have found online means to access the stock market and Sebi has a role to play in investor education. Sitharaman emphasised that the government looks at the targeted approach of providing assistance and takes the input from the ground quickly.

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