Nirmala Sitharaman holds Pre-Budget Consultation with Economists

NEW DELHI: The Union Minister of Finance & Corporate Affairs, Nirmala Sitharaman held here her 6th Pre-Budget Consultation Meeting with the leading Economists in connection with the forthcoming General Budget 2019-20.nnThe main areas of discussion during the aforesaid Meeting included boosting Economic Growth, Job Oriented Growth, increased Macro-economic Stability, Fiscal Management including ideal size of Public Sector Borrowing requirements and increase in investments among others.nnAlong with the Finance Minister, the said Meeting was attended by Rajiv Kumar, Vice-chairman, NITI Aayog, Subhash C. Garg, Finance Secretary, Ajay Bhushan Pandey, Revenue Secretary, Rajiv Kumar, Secretary, DFS Girish Chandra Murmu, Expenditure Secretary, Atanu Chakraborty, Secretary, DIPAM,  Pramod Chandra Mody, Chairman, CBDT,  P.K Das, Chairman, CBIC, Dr K.V. Subramanian, CEA and other senior officials of the Ministry of Finance.nnThe Economists put forward their view that this Budget should set the tone for the next five years and is a unique opportunity to promote manufacturing through Make in India. Various other suggestions received from Economists related to tariff reforms, removing bottlenecks in supply-chain, EXIM policy for agriculture, removal of specific duties on textiles, maintaining fiscal consolidation, revival of Inter-State Councils for holistic domestic growth, boosting employment by focusing on skilling and giving fillip to services and manufacturing sector, macroeconomic stabilisation and structural reforms for long-term growth, stability of tax rates, reduction of tariffs, further simplification of GST, implementation of Direct Tax Code, promoting labour intensive sectors, constitution of independent fiscal policy committee, incentivising digital transactions, focusing on job-oriented growth, Insolvency & Bankruptcy Code (IBC) type framework for NBFCs sector, infusing capital in banks and tapping into e-commerce?s potential for job growth among others.nnThe major participants in the aforesaid Meeting included Rathin Roy, CEO & Director, NIPFP; Arvind Virmani, Economist; S. Mahendra Dev, Vice Chancellor, Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research; Shri Shekhar Shah, DG, National Council of Applied Economic Research; Rakesh Mohan, Economist; T.N. Ninan, Chairman, Business Standard Pvt. Ltd.; Nitin Desai, Economist; Surjit S. Bhalla, MD, O(X) US Investment;Soumya Kanti Ghosh, Chief Economist, SBI; Errol D? Souza, Professor, Indian Institute of Management; Shri Ajit Ranade, Chief Economist, Aditya Birla Group;E. Somanathan, Professor, Economics and Planning Unit; Shri Niranjan Rajadhyaksha, Director, IDFC Institute; Ms Pranjul Bhandari, Chief India Economist, HSBC; Manoj Panda, Director, Institute of Economic Growth; Shri Balram Nandwani, Chairman, Global Village Foundation; Shri Atul Gupta, Vice Chairman, Indian Chartered Accountant Association; Partham Mukhopadhyay, Senior Fellow, Centre for Policy Research; Sunil Jain, Managing Editor, Financial Express among others.