Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman to meet her state counterparts for pre-budget consultations
New Delhi:
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman will meet her state counterparts on Thursday, December 30, as part of the traditional pre-budgetary consultations.
According to official sources, this will be a physical meeting with stakeholders unlike other pre-budget consultations, which were held virtually till now.
The Union Budget for 2022-23 is expected to be presented on February 1 during the first half of the budget session of Parliament which usually begins in the last week of January every year.
So far, the Finance Minister has held discussions with representatives of the financial sector, trade unions, industries and agriculture. She has also met leading economists to discuss the Union Budget.
During these interactions, the government has received several suggestions ranging from rationalization of income tax slabs, infrastructure status for digital services and incentives for hydrogen storage.
According to the Finance Ministry statement issued last week, eight such meetings were held between December 15 and December 22.
This will be the fourth budget of the NDA government in its second term and it is coming in the backdrop of the economy trying to recover from the coronavirus impact.
The growth rate is expected to be in double digits in the current financial year. The RBI in its latest bi-monthly monetary policy review has projected GDP growth at 9.5 per cent in 2021-22.
The government has projected a fiscal deficit of 6.8 percent of the gross domestic product (GDP).
,