66 Per Cent Of Budgeted Expenditure Already Spent By Govt: Chief Economic Advisor K Subramanian

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Friday briefed media on the economic measures placed before the Parliament and the progress in measures taken from the Parliamentary sessions. She said that results of some measures have started showing.

At the press briefing, the chief economic advisor of the government, Krishnamurthy Subramanian said that the government has taken various steps to boost the economy. Subramanian listed recapitalizing banks, corporate tax cuts and lending a helping hand to the real estate sector as some of the steps taken by the governement. 66 per cent of Rs 3.38 lakh crore budgeted expenditure has already been spent by the government, he said.

The CEA also announced that the government has focused on clearing all dues.

"Have put in a mechanism to quickly clear PSU dues to ensure liquidity in the economy. Govt & PSU dues of up to Rs 61,000 crore have been cleared in the past 2 months," he said.

"17 proposals, amounting to Rs 7,657 crore have been approved under a partial credit guarantee scheme. Sanctions to NBFCs/HFCs are currently at Rs 4.47 lakh crore to support retail lending," the CEA updated.

On the banking sector, the CEA highlighted that loans amounting to Rs 70,000 crore have been sanctioned till November 27.

"Over 8 lakh repo-linked loans amounting to Rs 70,000 crore have been sanctioned till November 27. The RBI's mandate to banks to link lending rates to external benchmarks has been implemented. A transparent one-time settlement system has also been introduced in PSU banks," he said.

"Evidence of measures to boost investment is actually seen in the record FDI inflows - US$ 35 Billion in the first half of 2019-20 as against US$ 31 Bn during the same period last yr. It's a good sign of foreigners seeing India as a very important destination," he said.