Bangalore Chamber of Industry and Commerce

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BCIC welcomes Finance Minister announcement on the Economic Package, Mar 27, 2020

The Bangalore Chamber of Industry and Commerce welcome the Hon'ble Finance Minister, Smt. Nirmala Sitharaman's announcement for prioritizing the need of the weakest section of the society through today's economic package of ?1.74 Lakh Cr. ($22.4 billion), so that they are able to survive during this difficult times.

We are extremely happy to note the following proposals and we believe it would immensely benefit the low income groups, daily wage earners, construction labourers etc.

*The food security measures that will impact  800 million people

*The Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) Cash transfer measures are set to benefit farmers, rural workers, poor pensioners, construction workers, low-income widowers.

*The Government of India will pay the EPF contribution both of the employer and the employee put together 24% for the next three months. This is for those establishments with up to 100 employees, 90% of them earning less than Rs. 15,000/ month. This will help the MSME sector who are very badly bleeding and many are in the stage of close-down. 

*EPFO regulation will be amended so that workers can draw up to 75% for their contingency expenditure non-refundable advance or three months of wages in advance whichever is less. This will benefit 4.8 cr workers for their consumption.

However, we do hope and sincerely believe that the government is proposing to come up with an economic package to deal with the current crisis and we are sure it the proposals will include the following, especially for the MSME sector who contribute 29% of India's GDP and employ 11.4 Cr people:

*Reducing the Bank Repo rate and thus enabling the bankers to reduce the rate of interest on all borrowing including housing and automobile loans. 

*Scrapping policy for the old (> 15 years) vehicles so that it can stimulate demand.

*Providing GST deferment for all Industries which would help companies/business to improve liquidity.

*The payment of total GST amount collected by Industries and Business from Feb 20 to first quarter of 2020 can be deferred and can be paid later from Sep’20 – Mar’21 in FY-21 as this would improve liquidity of business.

*Reducing rate of tax for senior citizens and other middle and lower income groups.

*So that people have more money in their hand and can consume based on their requirement.

*Providing a one-time benefit for small-time investors who lost significantly in the recent stock market crash by allowing carry forward and set off the losses.

*Setting up of” CORNA FUND” to help the daily wage earners/construction workers/casual labourers who are largely impacted due to shut-down.

*Companies can pay in this fund and monetize the amount against their Income tax obligation.