With the coronavirus outbreak hitting businesses hard, industry body Assocham on Saturday said it has sought form the government a slew of measures to tide over this difficult economic situation.
In a letter to Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, it has suggested moratorium for a period of one year on debt repayments both for corporates and individuals.
It has also urged the ministry for an urgent infusion of liquidity by the Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) into the Non Banking Financial Companies (NBFCs) in a quasi-equity format.
"Assocham has sought a blanket year-long moratorium by banks on debt repayment both for corporates and individuals as also urgent infusion of liquidity by the Life Insurance Corporation of India into the NBFCs in a quasi-equity format," Assocham said in a statement.
The industry body said that as precautions are being taken amid outbreak of coronavirus, it would be prudent to put in place a strategy which will enable the economy to bounce back once things start returning to normalcy.
Terming the outbreak of the deadly virus as "black swan", it said it has occurred at a time when the India's credit environment was "already fragile and the economy was slowing down."
It said "classifying an asset as NPA on the basis of number of days of dues unpaid is not quite in line with the global best practices."