Nirmala Sitharaman to hold presser today amid reports of stimulus 4.0

New Delhi, Nov 12: Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman will address a press conference at 12.30 pm on Thursday. The presser comes amid wide speculations that the government will announce another mega stimulus worth $20 billion to help the key sectors badly affected due to coronavirus.

The presser will be held after Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and other top officials will give the final go-ahead to the fourth mega stimulus plan.

After several rounds of discussion the government has almost finalised the next stimulus package, the source said, adding that the size of the stimulus could be much lower than the earlier announced amount of Rs 20 lakh crore.

The government may announce the reintroduction of the Pradhan Mantri Rojgar Protsahan Yojna in an expanded form, they said. Under this scheme government may give 10 percent subsidy on PF contribution for new employees and the employer, both.

The presser comes a day after the Union Cabinet gave its approval to the Production Linked Incentives (PLI) scheme for 10 sectors, under which businesses will get incentives worth over Rs 2 lakh crore in 5 years.

The PLI scheme, Sitharaman had said, would provide encouragement to the critical sunrise sectors by ensuring necessary support from the government in addition to creating jobs and linking India to global value chain.

The pandemic-induced lockdowns had led to a steep contraction of 23.9 per cent in the GDP for the April-June quarter as compared to the same period a year ago.