Nirmala Sitharaman makes major announcements: Full list of key decisions taken by Finance Minister

Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman today said the signs of revival are very encouraging, as annual fixed investment rate is going up and inflation has been kept under 4 per cent, while addressing the media. The Finance Minister announced a slew of measures to push economic growth. The key statements she made are:

1. Measures are being taken to improve credit outflows from banks.

2. Transmission of interest rate cuts are being effected by banks.

3. On exports fronts, Scheme for Remission of Duties or Taxes on Export Product (RoDTEP) will replace MEIS scheme.

4. She said that a new export incentive scheme to replace Merchandise Exports from India Scheme.

5. All Merchandise Export from India Scheme (MEIS) to discontinue after December 31, 2019.

6. The scheme of Remission of Duties or Taxes on Export Products (RoDTEP) is a new scheme, it shall completely replace all Merchandise Exports from India Scheme (MEIS) from January 1, 2020.

7. According to FM, Export Credit Guarantee Corporation will expand the scope of ECIS and offer higher insurance cover to banks lending working capital for exports. This is expected to cost Rs 1,700 crores per annum to the government.

8. Up to Rs 50,000 crore will go through new RoDTEP scheme or Revenue foregone projected at up to Rs 50,000 crore

9. She said that fully electronic refund scheme on input tax for exporters will be in place by end of this month

10. The scope of Export Credit Insurance Scheme (ESIC) by ECGC will be expanded

11. Under the revised Priority Sector Lending (PSL) norms for Export Credit, the government will release an additional Rs 36,000 crore to Rs 68,000 crore as export credit under priority sector

12. An inter-ministerial working group in Dept of Commerce will actively monitor export finance through a dashboard

13. On Free Trade Agreements (FTAs), the FM said that the government will set up FTA Utilisation Mission headed by a senior officer in Dept of Commerce, to work with FIEO and export houses to utilise concessional tariffs in each FTA.

14. On priority sector lending norms for MSME, the FM said that additional Rs 36,000-68,000 crore will be released to ensure higher credit availability for exports.

15. According to Sitharaman, data on export finance is regularly published by RBI, but now an interministerial working group will monitor export finance activity and Department of Commerce will run the Internal Working Group (IWG).

16. On Affordable Housing, she said a special window will provide the last-mile funding requirement for housing projects that are non-NPA and non-NCLT projects and are stuck due to lack of funding. 

17. She said that the window will be set up with a fund size of Rs 10,000 crore by the government, and it will be run by professional drawn from marketplace and domain specialists like banking or housing finance specialists.

18. Fund worth Rs 10,000 crore to be contributed by Government of India and roughly same amount from outside investors.

19. The finance minister said that about 3 lakh to 3.5 lakh projects all over the country will benefit from this fund.

20. She said that the objective behind this scheme is to focus on construction of unfinished units