In a much-awaited relief for distressed homebuyers awaiting possession of their flats, the Centre committed up to Rs 10,000 crore for completing housing projects stuck for years.

Since August, the government has been taking various steps to revive the market and consumption demand. Recently, the government cut the corporate tax rate to 22 per cent, which involved an outgo of Rs 1.45 lakh crore, Nirmala Sitharaman has said.

Addressing the annual meeting of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in Washington, Sitharaman said a task force has been constituted in the finance ministry that will draw up a national infrastructure pipeline for the next five years.  

As part of its goal to become a USD 5 trillion economy by 2024, India plans to spend USD 1.4 trillion on its infrastructure in the next five years, Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said on Saturday.

The minister listed out the investment possibilities Jammu and Kashmir carries in different sectors like tourism, fine arts, handicrafts, woodwork, carpets, silk, production of saffron and apple.

"It (India) is one of the fastest growing (economies) even today. It has the best skilled manpower and a government that is continuously doing what is required in the name of reforms, above all democracy and rule of law," Sitharaman said on Wednesday.

Lashing out at Raghuram Rajan, Sitharaman said, "Rather too democratic leadership, which probably will have the approval quite a lot of liberals, I am afraid left behind such a nasty stink of corruption which we are cleaning up even today."

The meeting is expected to review fund flow to stressed NBFC and MSME (micro, small and medium enterprises) sectors, sources said.

The bank was put under "directions" by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) last month due to weak financial health, wherein the central bank has capped the deposit withdrawals at Rs 25,000.

Conceding that GST may have some flaws in its present form, finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Friday asked tax professionals not to curse it and sought their help to make it better.

CPI general secretary D Raja on Friday wrote to Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman urging her to reconsider the 18 per cent GST on the annual Group Health Insurance Policy of retired bank employees.

PMC is in bad health allegedly due to its exposure to the near-bankrupt realty player HDIL, to which it has loaned over 70 per cent of its Rs 9,000 crore in advances.

The revenue department said the scheme will bring in a "paradigm shift" in taxation by eliminating human interface in the income tax assessment system.

The government will start consultations soon with Niti Aayog and Energy and Petroleum Ministries to bring down its equity holding below 51 per cent, including change of norms and modes of doing the stake dilution in very few select PSUs, to begin with.

Nirmala Sitharaman said that payments which are pending for services rendered, goods supplied or any other work done for government agencies and the Public Sector Undertakings to be cleared by October 15.

She indicated that economic slowdown seems to have bottomed out and the coming festive season will help the economy start looking up. The GDP growth in the first quarter of the current financial year slipped to an over six-year low of 5 per cent.  

Describing her meeting with the bankers as a "tonic", Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said on Thursday that there is no liquidity related problems being faced by the private sector lenders and the non-banking financial companies (NBFCs).  

In the biggest reduction in 28 years, the government on Friday slashed corporate tax by almost 10 percentage points as it looked to pull the economy out of a six-year low growth and a 45-year high unemployment rate by reviving private investments with a Rs 1.45-lakh crore tax break.

India has become a highly competitive investment destination post corporate tax reduction as the rates are now lower than that in China and most Southeast Asian countries, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said on Sunday.

Talking to reporters at the Indian Institute of Management in Lucknow, he said that the measure was a precious pre-Diwali gift to the sector from Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman.