New Delhi, Aug 25 (TIWN) As the government's mega disinvestment plans have slowed down amid the pandemic, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Tuesday said that there is a need to move faster in regards to the disinvestment decisions approved by the Cabinet.

The statement comes at a time when deadlines for submitting EoIs for several major PSUs up for sale have been postponed due to the pandemic.

Sitharaman highlighted that there was a need to move fast on cabinet cleared disinvestment decisions, according to a CII statement.

She also stressed that structural reforms are a key priority of the government as has been reflected in the slew of measures and policies announced since the outbreak of Covid-19.

Noting that every policy which was introduced had a structural component, the minister said that the reforms are having a significant impact on the recovery process which we are currently witnessing.

Further, she said that in order to facilitate the recovery process, the Home Ministry has given out directions to the state governments to impose no curbs on the movement of people and inter-state movement of goods and services.

"There cannot be a better time for exemplar cooperation between government, regulators and industry to ensure that Indian comes out from the present crisis", she said.

Taking cognisance of the fact that many sectors such as tourism, hospitality, real estate, construction and airlines have been disproportionately affected by the pandemic, Sitharman said that these are critical sectors with significant multiplier impact on the economy.

In order to ease the pain of a few of these ailing sectors, the Standard Operating Procedures (SoPs) for the hotels, banquets and related activities will be looked into, she said.