Nothing short of a direct Fiscal Injection will aid economic revival, Dr Abhishek Singhvi, Senior Advocate & Sitting Third Term MP

No.PR-61 May 8, 2020 New Delhi Nothing short of a direct Fiscal Injection will aid economic revival, Dr Abhishek Singhvi, Senior Advocate & Sitting Third Term MP Nothing else other than a direct fiscal inject by the government will help bring the economy out of the current crises, as monetary policy does help but it comes with its own limitations. The government needs to give more importance to fiscal stimulus at this time, said Dr Abhishek Singhvi, Senior Advocate & Sitting Third Term MP. While highlighting about the importance of Fiscal stimulus and citing the example of the total fiscal injection in India being 0.7% of total GDP by our government till now, as against that of Bangladesh and Malaysia which have given fiscal injection of 2.5% and 16% of their countries GDP respectively, Dr Singh stated that the need of the hour is to curtail the panic among the MSME sector and alleviate the imminent threat of insolvency. The Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code,2016 is a comprehensive and systemic reform, which gives a quantum leap to the functioning of the credit market. To understand the recent relief measures and the impact of Covid-19 on insolvency and Bankruptcy Code , PHD Chamber of Commerce and Industries, conducted an interactive Webinar on Impact of Covid-19 on Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code on 8th May, 2020. The session witnessed a participation of more than 500 industry players and senior members of PHD Chamber all over the country. Dr Abhishek Singhvi, Senior Advocate & Sitting Third Term MP, appreciated the efforts of PHD Chamber of Commerce and Industry to organize such an interactive webinar and discussed implanting relief measures announced by the Government of India. This pandemic and subsequent lockdown would be impacting the ongoing financing transactions as well as the financial arrangements of the country. The cabinet proposal of suspension of Section 7, Section 9 and Section 10 for 3 months or 6 months is appreciable move, as the NCLT going forward can stop the struggling with new filling of the cases and can take up disposable of arrears, said Dr Singhvi. Dr Singhvi further added that a proposal of Amendments for preparation pre-package insolvency process where restructuring plan agreed between the company and the creditors is a good one. Mr Pawan Kumar, Executive Director, Insolvency and Bankruptcy Board of India, said that the small and medium enterprises and the MSMEs have faced the maximum brunt of the Nationwide Lockdown, to contain the spread of Covid -19 spread, as compared to any other sector of the economy. The threshold monitoring limit, for the small and medium enterprises has been increased to Rs 1 crore from Rs 1 lakh under Section 4 of Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2016, added Mr Kumar Highlighting the issues and challenges being faced due to the spread of pandemic Covid-19, he stated that IBC is the landmark reform in a debtor-creditor market, said Mr Pawan Kumar. Going ahead he urged PHD Chamber of Commerce for providing effective suggestions and representation to combat against the hardships of consequences faced by the spread of pandemic Covid-19. Mr M M Kumar, Chief Justice (Retd.) J&K High Court, Past President, NCLT & Patron, NCLTBA reiterated that the considerable fall in the value of Assets has impacted the pending cases. He further highlighted that the suspension of the Section 7, Section 9 and Section 10 for 6 months or years may not be able to overcome the impact of pandemic Covid-19. Mr Kumar, further recommended that some financial relief package should be provided to the impacted Indian Industry by pandemic Covid-19. Dr U K Chaudhary, Senior Advocate & President, NCLTBA, while thanking PHD Chamber for this opportunity, dissected the impact of pandemic Covid-19 into 3 areas which includes something which is Non Legislative but have a wide impact on the proceedings under the IBC code; Legislative and the Proposal pending will be affected majorly under the Insolvency and Bnakruptcy Code, 2016. Mr Sanjay Aggarwal, Sr. Vice President, PHD Chamber of Commerce and Industry, appreciated the pro-active and fast track measures undertaken by the Government to mitigate and combat the hardships of adverse consequences by the spread of pandemic Covid-19 in the country. He also highlighted relief measures provided by the Government in this current alarming situation of severe market downturn and multi-fold spread of pandemic Covid-19. Way Forward, as developers are shelling out funds from their own reserves for the upkeep of the labour without getting any productive work done, it is of utmost importance to acknowledge some space and flexibilities to developers for deployment of funds, added Mr Sanjay Aggarwal. Mr Vipul Maheshwari, Chair, PHD Chamber of Commerce and Industry reiterated a sharp decline in performance of contracts and payments and supply chain disruptions by the spread of pandemic Covid-19 across the globe. The webinar was moderated by Mr. Vipul Maheshwari, Chair, Insolvency and Bankruptcy Committee along with Dr. S P Sharma, Chief Economist and Principal Director, PHD Chamber of Commerce and Industry, and Q&A Session was moderated by Mr G P Madaan, Co-Chair, Insolvency and Bankruptcy Committee, PHD Chamber of Commerce and Industry. The formal vote of Thanks was given by Mr Dinesh Agarwal, Co-Chair, Insolvency and Bankruptcy Committee. Ends. Media Division PHD Chamber of Commerce and Industry