Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman will hold a review meeting with heads of banks and NBFCs on Thursday for smooth and speedy implementation of the one-time debt recast for resolution of COVID-19 related stress in bank loans.

The finance minister will review the implementation of the resolution framework for COVID-19 related stress in bank loans on Thursday with the top management of scheduled commercial banks and NBFCs.

Finance Secretary Ajay Bhushan Pandey who attended the 41st GST Council Meet on the agenda of making up for shortfall in states’ revenues amid the pandemic, said that the Attorney General's clear opinion was that compensation gap cannot be met from India's consolidated fund and provided two options.

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, who chaired the 41st GST Council meeting, said the GST shortfall in FY21 was around Rs 2.35 lakh crore. Following a marathon five-hour meeting, Sitharaman said two options of compensating states were discussed.

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Tuesday said the government is open to further tweaking the Rs 3 lakh crore credit guarantee scheme for providing collateral-free loans to small businesses.

The Ministry of Finance on Monday said that businesses with an annual turnover of up to Rs 40 lakhs are exempt from GST and those with a turnover up to Rs 1.5 crore can opt for the Composition Scheme and pay only one per cent tax.  

Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched a platform to honour honest taxpayers via video conferencing at 11 AM on Thursday (today). The launch of the platform for 'Transparent Taxation - Honoring the Honest' will further carry forward the journey of direct tax reforms.

As part of the 'Aatmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyan' package, the finance minister in May had announced that there will be a maximum of four public sector companies in strategic sectors, and state-owned firms in other segments will eventually be privatised.

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has reserved words of praise for the Income Tax department, complementing officers for being responsive to the needs of the taxpayers during the pandemic times by relaxing various compliance requirements and addressing the liquidity concerns of the taxpayers.

Appreciating its continuous efforts towards making the tax administration taxpayer-friendly, transparent and geared towards facilitating voluntary compliance, she said there has been a paradigm shift in its role in recent years, from being just a revenue collecting organisation to becoming a more citizen-centric establishment.

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Tuesday promised more policy interventions to revive the economy, and emphasised that green shoots are visible and the agriculture sector is driving growth. 

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Saturday said the G20 Action Plan is an expression of collective commitment to fight COVID-19 pandemic and it should remain relevant and effective as the crisis evolves.

Speaking at a webinar organised by the Chennai International Centre (CIC), Sitharaman said that discussions are on with the RBI on the matter of one-time restructuring of loans.

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Friday said the government is monitoring progress of various relief measures, especially the transmission of repo rate cuts to corporates and consumers to stimulate the economy, hit by COVID-19 crisis.

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Thursday said Prime Minister Narendra Modi will launch a massive rural public works scheme ‘Garib Kalyan Rojgar Abhiyaan’ to empower and provide livelihood opportunities to the returnee migrant workers and rural citizens.

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman addressed press conference on Thursday about Garib Kalyan Rojgar Abhiyan, a scheme aimed at providing employment to migrant workers who went back during coronavirus lockdown.

In February, Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman had, during the Budget Speech 2020-2021 had announced that this decision is important and will be looked into again in the span of the next six months.

As a measure to clean up pendency in return filing, the GST Council has reduced/waived late fee for non-furnishing FORM GSTR-3B for the tax period from July, 2017 to January, 2020. 

The Union Finance Ministry on Friday said that the government will not initiate any new scheme/sub-scheme, whether under delegate power to ministry including SFC proposals or through EFC should be initiated in 2020-21 except proposal announced under PM Gareeb Kalyan Package, Aatma Nirbhar Bharat Abhiyan Package and any other special packages.