Union Budget 2021-22: Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman concludes pre-Budget meetings

Union Minister for Finance & Corporate Affairs Nirmala Sitharaman has concluded the pre-Budget meetings for Union Budget 2021-22. She chaired the pre-budget consultation meetings for budget 2021-22 in virtual mode from December 14-23, 2020.

Union Budget 2021 is likely to be presented on February 1, 2021.

Sitharaman had chaired all the pre-budget consultations that were held online with multiple stakeholders, including farmer bodies, economists, industry bodies, etc., to seek their inputs on how to revive the economy impacted by the coronavirus, COVID-19, pandemic outbreak.

According to the Finance Ministry, over 170 invitees representing 9 stakeholder groups participated in 15 meetings scheduled during this period. The stakeholder groups include, Financial and Capital Markets; Health, Education and Rural Development; Water and Sanitation; Trade Union and Labour Organization; Industry, Services and Trade; Infrastructure, Energy and Climate Change sector; Agriculture and Agro-Processing Industry; Industrialists; and Economists.

Union Minister of State for Finance & Corporate Affairs Anurag Singh Thakur, Finance Secretary Dr A.B. Pandey; Secretary, DIPAM, Tuhin Kanta Pandey; Secretary, Expenditure, T.V. Somanathan; Secretary, DEA, Tarun Bajaj; Chief Economic Advisor Krishnamurthy Subramanian and senior officers from Ministry of Finance and other Ministries also participated in the meeting.

The stakeholder groups made several suggestions on various subjects that included Fiscal Policy, including Taxation; Bond Markets; Insurance; Infrastructure Spending; Health and Education Budget; Social Protection; Skilling; Water Harvesting and Conservation; Sanitation; MGNREGA; Public Distribution System; Ease of Doing Business; Production Linked Investment scheme, Exports; Branding of 'Made in India' products, Public Sector Delivery Mechanisms; Innovation, Green Growth; Non-Polluting sources of Energy and Vehicles, among others.

The Ministry said, "The participants lauded the government's efforts to flatten the COVID-19 curve and a strong recovery in economic growth in the second quarter of 2020-21. They further stated that India is among very few countries whose economic activity has risen with declining pandemic induced fatalities."

Finance Minister Sitharaman thanked the participants for sharing their valuable suggestions assuring that all suggestions will be carefully considered while preparing the Budget 2021-22.