Mr Deepak Sood, Secretary General, Assocham

The industry body in its recommendations—’Towards an Organised, Safe & Sustainable Re-start of the Economy’—said: “Since we are not going to see the end of the crisis soon, the government should not spend all its firepower at once. Safeguarding macro fundamentals is important to ensure that the country does not suffer significant rating downgrades, and potential flight of capital”.

“In view of this, we recommend a fiscal support package, for FY21, limited to 2 per cent of the GDP, in addition to the INR 1.7 lakh crore provided under the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Yojana.”

Besides, the industry body has urged the Central government to support enterprises through banks. “Our estimates are that the economy would need a credit expansion of 14-15 per cent,” the recommendation paper said.

CII requested the RBI to extend the wage and interest support. “Banks should provide additional working capital limits, equivalent to the April-June wage bill of the borrowers, backed by a government guarantee, at 4-5 per cent, with a refinance guarantee from RBI,” the paper read.

Similarly, FICCI recommended that the economy requires an immediate stimulus package of Rs 9-Rs 10 lakh crore, which would account for 4-5 per cent of the country’s GDP, to recover from the impact of the coronavirus crisis and the ongoing nationwide lockdown. The report noted that other countries have also taken similar steps. The debt-to-GDP ratio of India is manageable, it added.