Finance Minister gives big relief to markets; Controversial FPI levy rolled back

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Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced several measures on Friday in an attempt to revive the sagging economy.

She said that the rest of the world is also facing recession and India’s economy is in a better condition than the rest of the world.

The Finance Minister said that there is a need to understand the global recession. She asserted that due to the ongoing trade war between China and the USA, the problem of recession is coming to the fore.

The Finance Minister announced the roll back of the controvertial tax surcharge on the Foreign Portfolio Investment (FPIs) announced in the Budget last month.

“The enhanced surcharge levied by Finance Act, 2019 on long and short term capital gains tax is being withdrawn,” Sitharaman said at a special media briefing here.

The rollback comes after Indian capital markets witnessed massive outflow of foreign funds in the month of July. Since the Budget, the benchmark index, Sensex had fallen over 3,000 points after it touched a life-time high of 40,000.

Making a big announcement for the auto sector as well, the Finance Minister said that there will be no problem in using BS-IV engine vehicles purchased by March 2020.

The increase in registration fees has also been postponed till June 2020. He said that due to the government’s emphasis on electric vehicles, petrol and diesel v

ehicles were expected to be shut down and due to this there were complaints of sales being down.

Nirmala Sitharaman said, it is not that the problem of recession is only for India but also the rest of the world is facing recession at this time. He said that reform is a continuous process and there have been continuous economic reforms in the country. India’s economy has been much better than other countries.The Finance Minister said that the government is continuously working towards economic reforms. Income tax return (ITR) has become much easier than before. GST will also be made easier. He said that our growth rate is also very good compared to many countries.