Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Wednesday concluded pre-Budget consultations with stakeholders.
More than 170 invitees, representing nine stakeholder groups participated in 15 virtual meetings, a Finance Ministry statement said.
The stakeholder groups include financial and capital markets; health,education and rural development; water and sanitation; trade union and labour organisation; industry, services and trade; infrastructure, energy and climate change sector; agriculture and agro processing industry; industrialists; and economists.
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.
According to the statement, 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 said India is among very few countries whose economic activity has risen with declining pandemic-induced fatalities.