Contrary to his assertion made not too long ago, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley announced a fiscal stimulus of Rs 700,000 crores on October 24. On October 15, speaking to reporters in Washington, he had said that he never talked about any stimulus package for boosting the economy. The media had spoken about it and "you should ask" them on it, Jaitley said when asked whether the Government was considering a massive fiscal stimulus package. "I have not used that phrase (fiscal stimulus). I said we will respond to situations and your fraternity translated the word respond as meaning stimulus. So you are the ones who should be answering and not me," the minister told reporters. However, Niti Aayog vice-chairman Rajiv Kumar took the stand that a financial stimulus to accelerate growth might not be a bad idea provided the money was not doled out and was used for capital expenditure to build roads and infrastructure. Though the Economic Advisory Council to the PM (EAC-PM) also expressed itself against any fiscal stimulus to maintain the strict fiscal deficit target of 3.2 percent, the Niti Aayog Vice-Chairman stuck to his guns. And finally, it seems that Kumar's viewpoint has prevailed even as the government has not tried to disturb the fiscal deficit target while announcing the stimulus of Rs5.35 lakh crore BharatMala Pariyojana to construct 34,800 km of highways and an aggressive Rs2.11 lakh crore recap plan for public sector banks.