New Delhi: The Government said on Sunday it planned $4 billion of extra spending this fiscal year in a package to revive fading economic growth hit by the global slowdown and to shore up confidence knocked by militants' attacks on Mumbai.
Authorities are pulling out all the stops to keep India's once-impressive pace of growth from braking too sharply while big economies face recession, with the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) slashing key interest rates on Saturday to keep credit flowing.
The government said it was also scrapping import duty on naphtha for the power sector and export duty on iron ore fines, letting a state-run infrastructure firm issue tax-free bonds worth 100 billion rupees ($2 billion) and cutting a central valued-added tax rate by four per centage points.
"The overall package is geared towards helping producers, especially the export sector, to tide over the difficult time of the global credit crunch," said Indranil Pan, chief economist at Kotak Mahindra Bank in Mumbai.
Source : Indianexpress.com