Thread by @nsitharaman

1/12 Our government, since when @PMOIndia @narendramodi took office, is
devoted to the welfare of the poor.We’ve taken a number of steps to help the poor and middle class. As a result, the average inflation during our tenure has remained lower than during previous governments.

2/12 Today, the world is passing through difficult times. Even as the world is recovering from Covid-19 pandemic, the Ukraine conflict has brought in supply chain problems and shortages of various goods. This is resulting in inflation & economic distress in a lot of countries.

3/12 Even during the pandemic, our government set a paradigm of welfare, especially with PM Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana. This is now acknowledged and appreciated the world over. #PMGKAY

4/n Despite the challenging international situation,we’ve ensured that there are no shortages/scarcity of essential goods. Even a few developed countries couldn’t escape some shortages/disruptions.

We are committed to ensure that prices of essential items are kept under control.

5/12 Despite rising fertilizer prices globally, we have protected our farmers from such price hikes. In addition to the fertilizer subsidy of ₹ 1.05 lakh crore in the budget, an additional amount of ₹ 1.10 lakh crore is being provided to further cushion our farmers.

6/12 @PMOIndia has specifically asked all arms of the government to work with sensitivity and give relief to the common man.

Keeping in line with @PMOIndia @narendramodi ‘s commitment to help the poor & common man, TODAY, we are announcing more steps to help our people.

7/12 We are reducing the Central excise duty on Petrol by ₹ 8 per litre and on Diesel by ₹ 6 per litre.
This will reduce the price of petrol by ₹ 9.5 per litre and of Diesel by ₹ 7 per litre.

It will have revenue implication of around ₹ 1 lakh crore/year for the government.

8/12
I wish to exhort all state governments, especially the states where reduction wasn’t done during the last round (November 2021), to also implement a similar cut and give relief to the common man.

9/12 Also, this year, we will give a subsidy of ₹ 200 per gas cylinder (upto 12 cylinders) to over 9 crore beneficiaries of Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana. This will help our mothers and sisters. This will have a revenue implication of around ₹ 6100 crore a year. #Ujjwala

10/12 We are also reducing the customs duty on raw materials & intermediaries for plastic products where our import dependence is high. This will result in reduction of cost of final products.
#MSME #chemicals #Plastic #Customs

11/12 Similarly we are calibrating customs duty on raw materials & intermediaries for iron & steel to reduce their prices.

Import duty on some raw materials of steel will be reduced.

Export duty on some steel products will be levied.
#MSME
#iron #steel #Customs #Export

12. Measures are being taken up to improve the availability of #Cement and through better logistics to reduce the cost of cement.

Notifications with specific details on all the above will be issued by GoI within the next hour.