India’s Finance minister to meet service, trade sector experts

INTERNATIONAL DESK: Ahead of the 2022-23 Union Budget of India, finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman will on Friday hold a series of pre-budget consultations with stakeholders from various industries in two sessions. While the first session will have the Union minister interacting with representatives from the services and trade sector, the next session will be with experts from industry, infrastructure, and climate change.

According to officials familiar with the matter, the meetings will be held in a virtual format in the national capital Delhi and will focus on various aspects of the forthcoming general budget 2022-23, which is to be unveiled by the central government on February 1, 2022.

“Union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman will chair pre-budget consultations with stakeholders from various sectors in 2 sessions tomorrow, December 17, 2021, in New Delhi in connection with the forthcoming General Budget 2022-23,” said the finance ministry in a tweet on Thursday. “The meetings are being held virtually.”

“FM Nirmala Sitharaman will be holding consultations with representatives of Services and Trade sector in forenoon; and with 2nd group of experts from Industry, Infrastructure and Climate Change in the afternoon,” it added.

Presenting the Union Budget, the annual financial report of India, is a compulsory task of the central government as it provides an estimate of the income and expenditure of the central government on a periodical basis. The Budget next year would come against the backdrop of gradual recovery taking place in the economy hit by the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) pandemic.

It is likely to be presented on February 1 during the first half of Parliament’s Budget session which usually begins in the last week of January every year.

Months ahead of the presentation, the finance minister holds consultations with experts and different stakeholder groups to listen to various grievances and concerns as part of the pre-budget consultations. On Thursday, Nirmala Sitharaman met infrastructure and financial sector honchos to seek their inputs for Budget 2022-23. (Hindustan Times)