Letter to BS: Govt deserves compliments for stimulus to arrest slowdown

The govt responded quickly to withdraw the enhanced surcharge levied on income of FPIs on short- and long-term gains on equity

The government deserves compliments for announcing the stimulus package in time to arrest the economic slowdown. The measures announced encompass many sectors. But the most important and far reaching decision the government announced was regarding the angel tax. Start-ups registered with the government will no longer be subject to angel tax. This would provide a big boost to the funding plans of start-ups, thereby boosting growth in some ways.

Further, the government has responded quickly to withdraw the enhanced surcharge levied on income of foreign portfolio investors on short- and long-term gains on equity. The enhanced surcharge announced in the Budget 2019 was largely believed to be dampening the investors' sentiment and needed to be done away with early. Also, by deciding a timeline for GST refund as two months for the micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs), the government has shown its concern for the MSMEs that need faster access to working capital to sustain their operations.

Hopefully, the measures announced by the government will give the much-needed fillip to growth and will be able to insulate India to some extent from the worldwide slowdown.

Sanjeev Kumar Singh, Jabalpur

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