FM Nirmala Sitharaman’s 5th and final phase of announcement on economic package today at 11 am

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Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman will address the media on Sunday at 11 am in the fifth and final phase of announcements on government’s Rs 20 lakh crore package.

In her fourth day of the briefing on the stimulus package on Saturday, Sitharaman announced “structural reforms” in 8 sectors – coal, minerals defence production, airspace management, MROs power distribution companies, space sectors, atomic energy.

Sitharaman said that over the days, along with her team, she has been announcing the various steps that the government wants to take to give stimulus to the economy and help various sectors.

“We have made several announcements and introduced many measures. We also made sure people don’t have to struggle to file taxes and have given boost to the MSMEs,” the finance minister said.

Announcing the introduction of commercial mining in the coal sector, Sitharaman said, “The government will introduce competition, transparency, and private sector participation in the Coal sector through revenue sharing mechanism instead of the regime of fixed rupee per tonne.”

“Commercial mining is being introduced in the coal sector and the age-old government monopoly is being removed. The commercial mining of coal will be done on a revenue sharing basis. An amount of Rs 50,000 crore is being provided for evacuation infrastructure in the coal sector,” Sitharaman said.

In defence production, the finance minister said for self-reliance a list of weapons and platforms will be notified and a ban imposed on import with year-wise timelines. There will be indigenisation of imported spares so that defence equipment is both made and bought in India.

Foreign Direct Investment limit in defence manufacturing under the automatic route is being raised from 49% to 74%, the government has decided.

In Civil Aviation, Sitharaman indicated that “Restrictions on the utilisation of Indian Air Space will be eased so that civilian flying becomes more efficient. We will bring a total benefit of Rs 1000 crore per year for the aviation sector.”