Sitharaman to address media at 5pm, may speak on bad bank proposal

Finance Minister to speak in Delhi ahead of GST council meeting in to Lucknow tomorrow.

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman will address the media Thursday at 5 pm in Delhi, said her ministry on Twitter. It didn’t give details but a media report said she is expected to make announcements about a proposal to set up a bad bank.

Clearing the path for the launch of National Asset Reconstruction Company (NARCL), the Cabinet is learnt to have approved the government guarantee on security receipts that will be used to buy bad loans of lenders. The Centre has earmarked about Rs 31,000 crore for this, Business Standard reported this morning.

The NARCL has been incorporated in Mumbai following its registration with the Registrar of Companies (RoC). The capital requirement of the bad bank has been estimated at Rs 6,000 crore by the IBA, which has been tasked with setting up the entity. It has mobilised an initial capital of Rs 100 crore as mandated by the regulator.

Sitharaman will on Friday attend a meeting of the goods and services tax (GST) Council in Lucknow Friday. The council is likely to turn down requests for exemption of indirect tax on services provided by statutory bodies like the Competition Commission of India (CCI) and the International Financial Services Centers Authority (IFSCA).

The meeting will consider if online food-delivery operators, such as Swiggy and Zomato, should pay GST on restaurant services supplied through them.