<p style="font-weight: 400;">As the deadly spread of coronavirus brings economic activities to a near halt leading to massive job losses, the government may look at extending the current financial year—which closes on March 31 every year—by a month to provide relief to millions of businesses.</p>
<p style="font-weight: 400;">Besides, the government is set to relax payment and filing of goods and services tax (GST). The new deadline could be June 30, two sources familiar with the development said.</p>
<p style="font-weight: 400;">Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, who is heading an economic response task force to carve out fiscal measures to boost businesses, is also looking at making available specially designed loans with minimal interest rates for the micro, small and medium enterprises (MSME) and traders, severely affected by the novel coronavirus. Easing of norms relating to repayment of loans and non-performing assets (NPA) for companies is also on the cards.</p>
<p style="font-weight: 400;">The Minister, sources said, has held a few meetings with stakeholders on this and is likely to make an announcement either later today or in the next one or two days.</p>
<p style="font-weight: 400;">Analysts said that the delay in the government’s announcement of a concrete package is dampening sentiments and adversely impacting businesses and equity markets.</p>
<p style="font-weight: 400;">The Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) has sought a strong fiscal stimulus of about Rs 2 lakh crore for the “needy citizens” which may be directed through Aadhar-based direct benefit transfer or DBT.</p>
<p style="font-weight: 400;">In early trade on Monday, India’s BSE Sensex fell by over 3,300 points and NSE Nifty by over 800 points due to heavy selling amid panic and rising uncertainty. The Indian rupee too hit a record low to fall beyond 76 to a dollar due to large withdrawals by the foreign institutional investors (FIIs).</p>
<p style="font-weight: 400;">“Pandemic is causing widespread lockdowns, causing the economy to grind to halt… In such a situation, emerging market currencies are vulnerable due to their dependence on dollar debt,” Anindya Banerjee, deputy vice president–currency derivatives and interest rate derivatives, Kotak Securities, said.</p>
<p style="font-weight: 400;">Panic and fear have led to a scramble for dollars. Banerjee said that even if RBI continues to sell dollars aggressively it may not stop the bleed in rupee.</p>.