Early budget to authorise expenditure at start of fiscal year: PM Modi

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday said that the date of budget presentation is being advanced so that expenditure is authorised by the time the new financial year begins.

Speaking during the interactive session with economists and other experts, organised by NITI Aayog, on the theme "Economic Policy - The Road Ahead,

Prime Minister Modi said, "In our existing budget calendar, the authorisation of expenditure comes with the onset of the monsoon."

Speaking about the budget cycle, he said this has an effect on the real economy.

This he said, results in government programs being relatively inactive in the productive pre-monsoon months.

"Keeping this in view, the date of budget presentation is being advanced, so that expenditure is authorised by the time the new financial year begins," the Prime Minister said.

In his intervention, the Prime Minister also thanked various participants for their suggestions and observations. In particular, he called for innovative approaches in areas such as skill development and tourism.

Addressing the media after the session, NITI Aayog vice chairman Arvind Panagariya said that Prime Minister Modi was asked to invest more on tourism by the expert.

Panagariya said that experts suggested steps as how to double the farm income by 2022 and as how to shift towards High Value Agriculture Products.

"In the interactive session we also discussed about digital payments for farmers," Panagariya said.

Speaking on budget related issues, the NITI Aayog vice chairman said: "There was discussion on how to bring down the tax rate."

During the session, participants shared their views on various economic themes such as agriculture, skill development and job creation, taxation and tariff related matters, education, digital technology, housing, tourism, banking, governance reform, data driven policy, and future steps for growth.

The meeting was attended by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, Minister of State for Planning Rao Inderjit Singh, Panagariya, and senior officers from the Union Government and NITI Aayog.

It was also attended by economists and experts including Prof. Pravin Krishna, Prof Sukhpal Singh, Prof Vijay Paul Sharma, Neelkanth Mishra, Surjit Bhalla, Dr. Pulak Ghosh, Dr. Govinda Rao, Madhav Chavan, Dr. N.K. Singh, Vivek Dehejia, Pramath Sinha, Sumit Bose, and T.N. Ninan.