In order to deal with the impact of coronavirus outbreak on the domestic industry and exports, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has said that the government will soon announce measures regarding it. She added that these measures will be announced in consultation with the Prime Minister's Office (PMO). Describing pharma, chemical and solar equipment segments as worst affected, the finance minister said disruptions are very visible in these sectors due to delay in shipments.
Sitharaman also said that there are no concerns about price rise so far due to coronavirus and added that it is too early to talk about the impact of Covid-19 outbreak on the Make in India initiative. She said there were no reports of shortage of medicines or medical equipment, instead, the pharma industry is asking for the lifting of the ban on exports of certain items.
About the MSME sector, she said the representatives raised concern about the delay in payment which is affecting their repayment to banks. Some MSMEs have also said that if the cycle of receiving the goods, manufacturing and sending them out is getting affected, because of delayed or staggered raw material supply, banks will also have to understand that repayments will be taking their own time. She said so to that extent they wanted flexibility from the banks. So everything got linked with raw material supply, congestion at the ports.
