India stressed the role of Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors of G20 countries in safeguarding the lives and livelihood of people while maintaining macroeconomic stability in a sustainable manner in the backdrop of Covid-19 pandemic.

In her intervention at the virtual session of the Second G20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors meeting, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman shared the measures taken by Government of India to provide the vulnerable sections with swift, timely and targeted assistance.

She said, within a couple of weeks, India has disbursed financial assistance amounting to 3.9 billion dollars to more than 320 million people so far. She informed the meeting that the disbursal is being done with a special focus on direct benefit transfer through digital technology so that the exposure of beneficiaries to public places is minimised. She told the finance ministers and central bank governors that India is now reaping benefits of the farsighted measures of financial inclusion which are part of the pioneering reforms carried out by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.



Sitharaman also said that the monetary policy measures undertaken by Government of India, Reserve Bank of India and other regulators have helped de-freeze the market and catalyse credit flows. These measures include liquidity support of 50 billion dollars, regulatory and supervisory measures for credit easing, relief on debt servicing through moratoriums on instalments of term-loans, eased working capital financing and deferred interest payments on such financing.



She said, the G20 Plan to combat Covid19 will guide individual and collective actions of the G20 members in responding to the pandemic in short and medium term. The Action Plan aims to protect lives, safeguard people’s jobs and incomes, restore confidence, preserve financial stability, revive growth and recover strongly. This plan also provides for helping countries needing assistance, coordinating in public health and financial measures and minimising disruption to global supply chain.