Nirmala Sitharaman: I haven't closed the option for another stimulus package

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Monday said the government has begun an exercise to assess the impact of the pandemic on the economy and likely contraction in GDP, even as she did not rule out the possibility of another stimulus to boost growth.

"I have not closed the option for another stimulus ... Every time we have announced one, it has been after a lot of consideration... I have not closed the option to come up with one more stimulus," she said at the launch of a book by the 15th Finance Commission Chairman N K Singh.

Sitharaman also said, "we have only now started doing some kind of an assessment. We waited for the commencement of the second half, which has just started. And we have got a lot of inputs which are very different from what we had in July. And ideally, it should be so.

"Perhaps yes sometime we will have to come out with a statement. Whether I do it in public or do it in Parliament is one thing, but the Finance Ministry will have to make an assessment of what it is going to be," she said.

Last week, Sitharaman had announced a payment of cash in lieu of LTC and Rs 10,000 festival advance to the government employees to stimulate consumer demand during the festive season and boost the economy. She also announced additional capital spending and Rs 12,000 crore, 50-year interest-free loan to states to boost the economy.

These two measures are "expected to create a consumer demand of about Rs 28,000 crore.

Modi government in May had announced a Rs 20 lakh crore 'Aatmanirbhar Bharat' stimulus for businesses and workers to recover from the coronavirus-induced lockdown loss.

A tough lockdown imposed to stem the spread of coronavirus had resulted in the economy contracting by a record 23.9 per cent during April-June.