15th Finance Commission held meeting with its Advisory Council

The Economic Advisory Council of the Fifteenth Finance Commission will meet on 23-24 April, 2020.

Daily Current Affairs Quiz 2020

Key-Points

The Members of the Advisory Council discussed the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and the national lockdown on the Indian economy.

The officials discussed the impact of the pandemic on financial institutions and business enterprises and the loss of global demand for Indian products because of a steep global recession.

Discussions on measures to restore the supplies of intermediates and cash flows and the demand for output.

Small scale enterprises were cash-starved even prior to the onset of COVID-19.

The Council devised a support mechanism to help the activity levels and cash flows to overcome the economic issues caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Currently, the activity levels and cash flows are affected, it is important that a support mechanism is devised to help them overcome this problem.

To help Non-banking financial companies (NBFCs) which are also affected by the slowdown, the commission planned to deepen the NPAs in the financial sector and introduce measures to guarantee help.

The council planned to seek Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) help to ensure that financial institutions are well-capitalized.

The finances of the Central and State Governments will be given adequate provision to largely help governments to manage cash-flow mismatches. It aims to ensure that the State governments get access to adequate funds to undertake their fight against the pandemic.

The Council decided to support the revival of activity in different States which will be at a varied pace.