FM Nirmala Sitharaman to detail India's Rs 20 lakh crore Covid package at 4pm on Wednesday

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman will address a press conference of Wednesday at 4 PM in New Delhi to provide the details of the Rs 20 lakh crore economic package announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday to tackle the Coronavirus pandemic and usher in an 'Aatmanirbhar' or self-reliant India.

PM Modi announces mega economic package

In a big push to revive the Coronavirus-hit economy, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday announced massive new financial incentives on top of the previously announced packages, entailing a combined stimulus of Rs 20 lakh crore, saying the COVID-19 crisis has provided India with an opportunity to become self-reliant and emerge as the best in the world.

Apart from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) assistance, the government had last month announced a Rs 1.74 lakh crore package to provide benefits to the poor, including cash transfers, Rs 50 lakh insurance cover and steps to ensure food security. In a televised address to the nation, the Prime Minister also said there will be a fourth phase of the lockdown which will be very different from the earlier three phases. The third phase of the 54-day lockdown is scheduled to end on May 17.

About the financial package, the Prime Minister said it will be around 10% of the GDP and "will play an important role in the Atmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyan' (self-reliant India campaign), adding that the "announcements made by the government so far, the decisions of the RBI and today's package totals to Rs 20 lakh crores".

The special economic package will have an emphasis on land, labour, liquidity and laws, and will be for "our labourers, farmers, honest taxpayers, MSMEs and cottage industry", PM Modi said.

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Finance Minister Sitharaman had then tweeted:

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(With PTI inputs)