FM holds Pre-Budget Consultation with representatives of Financial Sector

Speed Post News Network

New Delhi : Union Finance & Corporate Affairs Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on June 13, 2019, held her third Pre- Budget Consultation Meeting with the stakeholders from Financial Sector and Capital Markets here. The main areas of discussion during the meeting included issues relating to the Capital Markets, Financial Sector, Non-Banking Financial Companies (NBFCs), and Alternative Investment Funds (AIFs) among others.

Along with the Finance Minister, the meeting was attended by Anurag Thakur, Minister of State for Finance and Corporate Affairs,  Subhash C Garg, Finance Secretary, Girish Chandra Murmu, Expenditure Secretary, Ajay Narayan Pandey, Revenue Secretary, Rajeev Kumar, Secretary, DFS,  Atanu Chakraborty, Secretary, DIPAM, Pramod Chandra Mody, Chairman, CBDT,  P K Das, Chairman, CBIC, Dr K V  Subramanian, CEA, and other senior officials of Ministry of Finance.

With a view to giving boost to Indian markets, the representatives of Financial Sector & Capital Markets submitted several suggestions concerning infusion of capital in niche/regional banks, enhanced role of Financial Sector Development Council on the NBFC Sector, need to distinguish between solvency, governance & liquidity issues including the creation of dedicated liquidity window for NBFC sector, review of interest rates on Govt.’s Small Savings Schemes, review of banking NPAs provisions through setting-up a Committee,  incentivising agricultural marketing, setting-up of Debt Exchange Traded Fund,  making available trade licence online for MSME sector, provision to ease liquidity pressures created due to insolvency, rationalisation of various taxes like Security Transaction Tax (STT) in capital market, allowing banks to invest in InvITs to access broader market and make Corporate Tax progressive to incentivise MSME Sector among others.

Major Stakeholders of Financial Sector and Capital Markets participating at the meeting included N S Vishwanathan, Deputy Governor, Reserve Bank of India, Rajnish Kumar, Chairman, State Bank of India,  Sunil Mehta, Chairman, PNB and Indian Banks’Association, T C Suseel Kumar, MD, LIC, Rakesh Mohan Diwan, Senior Vice President – Corporate Affairs-The Muthoot Group, Rajiv Anand, ED, Axis Bank Ltd, Ashu Khullar, CEO, Citibank India, Abheek Barua, Chief Economist, HDFC Bank Ltd., Chandra Shekhar Ghosh, Chairman & MD, Bandhan Bank, , N S Venkatesh, CEO, Association of Mutual Funds in India,  Raman Aggarwal, Chairman, Finance Industry Development Council, according to a PIB release