Union Minister for Finance & Corporate Affairs Smt. Nirmala Sitharaman chaired the pre-budget consultation meetings for Budget 2023-24 held in virtual mode from 21^st to 28^th November, 2022. The pre-budget meeting were concluded here today.

More than 110 invitees representing 7 stakeholder groups participated in 8 meetings scheduled during this period. The stakeholder groups include representatives and experts from Agriculture and Agro Processing Industry; Industry, Infrastructure & Climate Change; Financial Sector and Capital Markets; Services and Trade; Social Sector; Trade Unions and Labour Organisations and Economists.

Union Ministers of State for Finance Shri Pankaj Chaudhary and Dr. Bhagwat Kishanrao Karad, Finance Secretary Shri T.V. Somanathan; Secretary, DEA, Shri Ajay Seth; Chief Economic Advisor, Dr. V. Anantha Nageswaran; Secretary, DIPAM, Shri Tuhin Kanta Pandey; Secretary, Financial Services, Shri Vivek Joshi; Secretary, Corporate Affairs, Shri Manoj Govil; OSD, Revenue, Shri Sanjay Malhotra, and senior officers from Ministry of Finance were also present during the meetings. Secretaries of other Ministries/Departments concerned participated through online mode.

The representatives of the stakeholder groups made a number of suggestions for the forthcoming budget that included mechanism for green certification to help MSMEs , urban employment guarantee programme to boost employment generation in urban areas, rationalisation of income tax, creation of innovation clusters, schemes for  improving domestic supply chains,  reduction of taxes on electric vehicle, introduction of EV policy,  measures to promote India as a hub for Green Hydrogen, Social Sector Entrepreneurship Fund for Social Impact Companies, Training and Accreditation of Care Economy Workers, portable social benefit for children, National Regulatory Authority for Water and Sanitation, coverage of unorganised workers under ESIC, continuation of Public Capex, fiscal consolidation and lower customs duties, among others.

The Finance Minister thanked the participants for sharing their valuable suggestions and assured that suggestions would be carefully considered while preparing the Budget 2023-24.

Budget consultations propose policy measures to support MSMEs, green technologies, labour protections and infrastructure in forthcoming budget. Pre-budget consultations were held virtually with over one hundred invitees across seven stakeholder groups and senior finance officials to collect proposals for the forthcoming Union Budget. Stakeholder suggestions included green certification for MSMEs, an urban employment guarantee programme, income tax rationalisation, innovation clusters, measures to strengthen domestic supply chains, tax and policy support for electric vehicles and green hydrogen, a Social Sector Entrepreneurship Fund, care-economy worker training and accreditation, portable social benefits for children, a national regulatory authority for water and sanitation, expanded ESIC coverage for unorganised workers, continuation of public capital expenditure, and fiscal consolidation with customs duty adjustments.