Parliament Panel Calls Government's Stimulus Package "Inadequate"

The panel suggested that Government should immediately come out with a larger economic package aimed at bolstering demand, investment and employment.

A high level Parliamentary panel has said that as the second wave of the Coronavirus pandemic "even more vigorously ripped the economy, particularly the micro small and medium (MSME) sector", the Centre's stimulus package for economic revival has proved to be "inadequate". The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Industry of Rajya Sabha, in its report on the impact of the pandemic on the MSME sector, said in its observation on Government's efforts to counter its ill effects, "the stimulus package announced by the Government for the economic revival from the pandemic hit economy has been found to be inadequate as the measures adopted were more of loan offering and long-term measures instead of improving the cash flow to generate demand as immediate relief." In this light, the panel has recommended that "the Government should immediately come out with a larger economic package aimed at bolstering demand, investment, exports and employment generation to help the economy, including MSMEs to recover from the pandemic fall-out".  The committee also noted that a large number of jobs were lost due to Covid-19 pandemic and economic conditions of the households suffered a jolt and their regular income declined significantly during lockdown periods.