CCEA to convene before Cabinet meet at PM's Residence on Wednesday amid Covid extension

On Wednesday, the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) will hold a meeting at 11 am at 7 Lok Kalyan Marg which is the Prime Minister's residence. This will be followed by a meeting of the Union Cabinet.

It is speculated that a financial stimulus package 2.0 may be finalised in the meeting amid the extended lockdown to curb the spread of the novel Coronavirus.

PM Modi met FM Sitharaman last week

This comes after Prime Minister Narendra Modi met with Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Thursday and reviewed the impact of Coronavirus pandemic on the economy, details of which have been accessed by the Republic Media Network. In the meeting between the Prime Minister and the Finance Minister, a second stimulus package was discussed to provide relief to those sectors which have been severely affected. 

PM Modi also discussed the impact of the pandemic from small sectors to the aviation sector and also millions of jobs that have been affected. The meeting comes amid a drastic reduction in GDP growth forecast by various multilateral funding agencies for the current fiscal due to the impact of COVID-19 and the consequent lockdown. State of the economy was discussed in detail during the meeting, sources said, adding resource mobilisation for taking on the future challenges was also highlighted.

Previously, Rs 1.75 lakh crore package was introduced by the Central Government as a relief package. While announcing the first package, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said that the relief package includes direct benefit cash transfers, free LPG, grains, and pulses for the poor while the middle class would be able to withdraw funds from their Employees Provident Fund (EPF) account.

Amid this, the RBI has issued two set of measures, the most recent being to tide over industry woes and attempt to push banks to deploy excess liquidity.