The centre may be required to borrow massive funds amounting to 4-5 lakh crore to fight the outbreak of corona and its aftermath, according to former Finance Secretary Subhash Chandra Garg.
He says the Government should borrow this directly from the RBI instead of going to the market”.
“The government should support the small and self-employed businesses by about Rs 2 lakh crore. If the lockdown continues to make some of these businesses inoperative, the fiscal package should have a provision to cover that up as well,” he said in a blog.
Garg also suggested that the lockdown should be lifted from such rural areas and cities which have no cases of COVID spread.
Garg said that the fiscal stimulus of 1.7 lakh crore announced on March 26 does not address the loss suffered by the workers and a new package of about 60,000 crore is urgently needed for the workers who are suffering from lockdown.
He added that the economic lockdown has rendered jobless crores of workers in the mining, construction, manufacturing and services sectors, and they need immediate fiscal support for three months.
Garg, who is currently Adviser to the Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh, also said that the centre should release the held-up amount of nearly 30,000 crore of GST compensation, as the states’ revenues have taken a massive hit. He said that the centre should release the instalment of Rs 56000 crores due to the states in central taxes.
