<span style="color: #222222;">Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has said that  India's growth in comparison to other countries is relatively better. She said, the country's growth rate is higher than United States and China. The Minister's statement came yesterday, while announcing a slew of measure to achieve the higher economic growth. The Finance Minister said, consumption growth is not down in just emerging economies but also in advanced ones. The Finance Minister said, reform has been the top agenda for the government since 2014 and the momentum with which government wants to carry out reforms will continue. <br />'' <br />'' Stressing on the government's focus on tax reforms she said, the government wants to move from prosecution to more human approach. She stated that the government has taken several measures to save the income tax assesses from harassment. The Finance Minister said, respect for wealth creators was the spirit of Union budget for 2019-20 and consultations are going on with different sectors to understand their needs. Among the measures to boost the Automotive Sector include, lifting the ban on purchase of new vehicles for replacing all old vehicles by government departments and consider various measures including scrapage policy to boost demand.<br />''</span><br />'' <span style="color: #222222;">The Finance Minister said, BS-IV vehicles purchased up to end of March 2020 will remain operational for the entire period of registration. The revision of one-time registration fees has been deferred till June 2020. Besides, both electric vehicles (EVs) and Internal Combustion Vehicles (ICV) will continue to be registered.<br />'' <br />'' The Minister also announced additional liquidity support of 20,000 crore rupees to Housing Finance Companies (HFCs) by the National Housing Bank (NHB), thereby increasing the total support to 30,000 crore rupees.<br />''</span><br />'' <span style="color: #222222;">The government announced partial credit scheme for purchase of pooled assets of Non-Banking Finance Companies (NBFCs) and HFCs up to one lakh crore rupees to be monitored at highest level in each bank. Prepayment notices issued to NBFCs will be monitored by banks. It has been decided to make necessary changes in PMLA rules and Aadhaar regulations to ease the lending process.<br />'' <br />'' Prime Minister Narendra Modi has said that the measures announced by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman will boost the overall economy. In a tweet, Mr Modi said, this will also facilitate ease of doing business, improve demand and make credit affordable.<br />''</span><br />'' <span style="color: #222222;">The industry and business association bodies have welcomed the measures announced by the Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman yesterday to achieve higher economic growth. President of FICCI Sandip Somany said, this will give a major boost to the economy that had started showing signs of a deep slowdown. He said, these measures will lift the confidence of businesses and investors alike. Mr Somany said, measures announced for the auto industry will give a boost to the sector.</span><br />'' <span style="color: #222222;"><br />''ASSOCHAM President B.K. Goenka said, the decision on roll back of surcharge on Foreign Portfolio Investors, upfront capital infusion of 70 thousand crore rupees into public sector banks and fiscal sops along with policy clarity on the automobile sector will restore confidence of investor as also consumer. He said, Mrs Sitharaman has given big relief to the MSMEs, assuring them faster clearance of pending with the government departments and the central public sector enterprises.</span>