India took big decision of not to levy tax on people to get out of the pandemic: Nirmala Sitharaman

Washington: Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has said, the one big step that the government decided was, not to levy tax on people to get out of the pandemic. She said, country's revenue to rescue the economy was not going to come from taxing people, hence, no COVID tax was levied on anybody.

 

Ms Sitharaman was speaking at an event organised by Atlantic Council in Washington DC on Tuesday. She said, when the pandemic came, government realized that the best multiplier that the country will have for the recovery of economy would be for the government to spend money in building infrastructure.

So, capital expenditure was the government's route to recovery. She said, the government has made sure that free foodgrains, pulses and some quantity of cooking gas were distributed to 800 million Indians in 2020. She said, the free foodgrain program continued in 2021 and it continues even



now.

The Finance Minister also held a meeting with Financial Stability Board Chair Klaas Knot on the sidelines of IMF-World Bank Spring Meetings 2022 in Washington DC. During the meeting, Ms Sitharaman and Klass Knot exchanged views on dimensions of risk in crypto eco-system.

Earlier, the Finance Minister met Vice-Chair of the Climate Finance Leadership Initiative and the first woman to serve as U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission Chair, Mary Schapiro in Washington DC.

During the meeting, Mary Shapiro discussed the success in India related to building a robust renewable energy market. She said, it is an opportune time for India to play a leadership role in shaping global Climate Finance trends. Nirmala Sitharaman spoke about her vision of developing GIFT city as centre for attracting global capital for sustainable finance.