`70,000 crore package to boost exports, real estate sectors: FM
New Delhi: Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Saturday announced an over Rs 70,000 crore package for the exports and real estate sectors, including setting up of a stressed asset fund, as the government continued with firefighting measures to pull the economy out of a six-year low growth rate.
A Rs 20,000 crore fund, with government putting in half of the amount, will be set up to provide last-mile funding for housing projects that are not in bankruptcy court or already tagged as bad debt, she said at a press conference here to announce the third set of measures to address stress in specific sectors and boost the economy.
Also, housing finance companies have been allowed to borrow funds abroad at relaxed rules while interest rate on housing building advance has been lowered, benefiting government servants who make up for a significant component of demand for houses.
The stressed asset fund will benefit around 3.5 lakh homebuyers, Sitharaman said, adding that buyers stuck in bankruptcy-bound projects will get relief through the NCLT.
For exporters, a new scheme for reimbursement of taxes paid on exports, called the Remission of Duties or Taxes on Export Product (RoDTEP), will come into effect from January 2020 to replace existing dispensations.
Besides, a Rs 1,700 crore annual dole will allow Export Credit Guarantee Corp (ECGC) to offer higher insurance cover to banks lending working capital for exports, she said. This will enable a reduction in the overall cost of export credit, including interest rate, especially for MSMEs, she added.
Priority sector lending tag for export credit is under consideration of the Reserve Bank, which will release an additional Rs 36,000 crore to Rs 68,000 crore as export credit.
Other measures for exporters included fully electronic refund of input tax credit from month end, action plan to reduce time to export or turnaround time at airports and ports by December and a special FTA utilisation mission that will work with export houses to utilise concessional tariffs in each free trade agreement (FTA) India has with different nations.
She also announced a mega shopping festival on the likes of the world-famous Dubai Shopping Festival, will be conducted at four places in India in March.
The finance minister said the measures together with the ones announced on the previous two occasions would help lift the economy and growth rate will improve in the second quarter.
Inflation, she said, has been kept "very much" below the 4 per cent mark and there are "clear signs" of revival in the economy, as witnessed in an uptick in industrial production and fixed investment.
Measures are being taken to improve credit outflow from banks, which have also begun to transmit interest rate cuts to borrowers, she said.
