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New Delhi : Union Finance & Corporate Affairs Minister Nirmala Sitharaman held her 8th Pre-Budget Consultation Meeting with the leading Economists here on December 20, 2019, in connection with the 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 meeting was attended among others by Rajeev Kumar, Finance Secretary; Atanu Chakraborty, Secretary, DEA; Ajay Bhushan Pandey, Revenue Secretary; Tuhin Kant Pandey , Secretary, DIPAM , Pramod Chandra Mody, Chairman, CBDT; Dr K V Subramanian, CEA.
The Economists were optimistic about the India growth story and put forward ways through which India can achieve the goal of $5 trillion economy. The key suggestions included 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, according to a PIB release.
The participants at meeting included Neelkanth Mishra, Credit Suisse; Rathin Roy, Director, NIFP; Sunil Jain, Managing Editor, Financial Express; Shekhar Shah, Director General, NCAER; Arvind Virmani, Economist; Surjit S. Bhalla, Managing Director, O(X)US Investment; Abheek Barua, Chief Economist, HDFC Bank; Soumya Kanti Ghosh, Group Chief Economic Adviser, State Bank of India; Ajit Mishra, Director, Institute of Economic Growth; Ajit Ranade, Chief Economist, Aditya Birla Group; Prasanna Tantri, Assistant Professor (Finance), Indian School of Business; Rahul Bajoria, Chief Economist, Barclays Investment Bank, Suvodeep Rakshit, Vice President, Kotak Securities Ltd.; and Sachin Chaturdvedi, Director General, RIS.