Stimulus package of Rs 9-10 lakh crore needed to revive economy: Ficci

As the coronavirus crisis and subsequent nationwide lockdown severely impact the Indian economy, a FICCI survey has said that few sectors like restaurants, automobile and real estate may take around 12 to 24 months to recover.

The other sectors also severely hit may require similar period to revive, including transportation and tourism, logistics, entertainment and consumer durables.

The survey titled 'COVID-19 India: Economic Impact & Mitigation', however, said that recovery is dependent on consumption stimulus and survival of businesses itself.

It said that sectors such as apparel and beauty products, beverages, alcoholic beverages, insurance, agriculture, chemicals, metals and mining, services, industries, offline retail, and healthcare are likely to recover in nine to 12 months.

In its report, the industry body has said that the Indian industry requires an immediate stimulus package of Rs 9-10 lakh crore, which would account for 4-5 per cent of the country's GDP.

The report noted that other countries have also taken similar steps. The debt-to-GDP ratio of India is manageable, it added.

“This money to be injected for relief and rehabilitation across all levels of the economy, including people at the bottom of the pyramid, informal workers, micro, small and medium enterprises, and large corporates,” it said.

The chamber has also suggested setting up of a 'Bharat Self-Sufficiency Fund' with an outlay of Rs 2 lakh crore. It said that the fund could be used to promote scientific research and innovation for building a stronger and resilient nation and creating self-sufficient industry clusters with fully developed value chains within the country for products where India has high import dependence.

The report also noted that services such as food retail, telecommunications, utility services and pharmaceuticals have witnessed a boost in the short term and would stabilize in the long term, in about six to nine months.

Further, online healthcare, personal care, online entertainment and education have also received a boost during the restrictions and lockdown and would keep growth momentum in the long term..