Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Wednesday made a series of announcements and shared details of the Rs 20 lakh crore economic package announced by PM Modi to the fight the coronavirus crisis. The finance minister announced that the due date for all income tax returns has been extended to November 30.
The rate of TDS, TCS for non-salaried payments for period up to March 31, 2021 has also been cut by 25%. The move will release Rs 50,000 crore, the finance minister announced.
Sitharaman started her address by stating that the Rs 20 lakh crore economic package in an initiative to spur growth in the country and make a ‘self-reliant India’ or ‘Atmanirbhar Bharat’ amid the Covid-19 crisis. In her opening comment, she went to reiterate the significance of ‘Atmanirbhar Bharat’ and how the package will help various economic sections of the country in achieving that vision.
“The word ‘Atmanirbhar’ India is the one which you will hear me say quite often. I know coming from South India, a lot of people wondered what it meant, so for their benefit I will just say what it means,” Sitharaman said.
She went on to translate the term ‘Atmanirbhar Bharat’ in four South Indian languages – Tamil, Kannada, Telugu and Malayalam.
Sitharaman said that the five pillars of ‘Atmanirbhar Bharat’ are economy, infrastructure, system, demography and demand.
The finance minister announced a slew of measures and fiscal initiatives, adding that over the next few days her team will come before the media to put forth PM’s vision and share more details on the economic package.
