Union Minister of Finance & Corporate Affairs Smt. Nirmala Sitharaman held her 8th Pre-Budget Consultation Meeting with the leading Economists here today in connection with the forthcoming General Budget 2020-21.

The main focus areas of the discussions included steps needed to achieve $5 trillion economy, job-oriented growth with focus on manufacturing and services, transparency of fiscal arithmetic, monetary transmission, Government’s fiscal prudence and fiscal stimulus, revival of NBFCs and inflation targeting among others.

Along with the Finance Minister, the said aforesaid meeting was attended by Shri Rajeev Kumar, Finance Secretary; Shri Atanu Chakraborty, Secretary, DEA;Shri Ajay Bhushan Pandey, Revenue Secretary;Shri Tuhin Kant Pandey , Secretary , DIPAM ,Shri Pramod Chandra Mody, Chairman, CBDT; Dr K.V. Subramanian, CEA, and other senior officials of the Ministry of Finance.

The Economists were optimistic about the India growth story and put forward ways through which India can achieve the goal of $5 trillion economy. Among the key suggestions were to attract more investment to support growth; streamlining policy matters and faster resolution of policy issues in all sectors;fiscal management; reforms in the power sector; focus on long-term reforms through structural reforms in simplification of GST and Direct Tax Code reforms; securing supply chains for economy; fiscal deficit; continuity in economic policy making; land and labour reforms; ways to enhance rural demand; improve oversight of financial markets; reforms in small savings rate; boosting agricultural exports;simplifying procedures to give financial savings a shot in the arm.

The major participants in the aforesaid meeting included Shri Neelkanth Mishra, Credit Suisse; Shri Rathin Roy, Director, NIFP; Shri Sunil Jain, Managing Editor, Financial Express;  Shri Shekhar Shah, Director General, NCAER;  Shri Arvind Virmani, Economist;  Shri Surjit S. Bhalla, Managing Director, O(X)US Investment;  Shri Abheek Barua, Chief Economist, HDFC Bank;  Shri Soumya Kanti Ghosh, Group Chief Economic Adviser, State Bank of India;  Shri Ajit Mishra, Director, Institute of Economic Growth;  Shri Ajit Ranade, Chief Economist, Aditya Birla Group; Shri Prasanna Tantri, Assistant Professor (Finance), Indian School of Business;  Shri Rahul Bajoria, Chief Economist, Barclays Investment Bank and  Shri SuvodeepRakshit, Vice President, Kotak Securities Ltd.; Shri Sachin Chaturdvedi, Director General, RIS;among others.

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RM/DKS/KMN

Pre budget consultation gathers economists' recommendations to boost investment, reform taxes and revive the financial sector for growth. Pre budget consultations solicited expert recommendations to support growth and job creation through measures to attract investment, ensure fiscal transparency and prudence, strengthen monetary transmission, revive and oversee non bank financial companies, and implement structural reforms including simplification of tax frameworks, land and labour reforms, and measures to mobilise financial savings and bolster rural demand.