Sitharaman holds pre-Budget consultation with industry, trade representatives

Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Tuesday started her pre-Budget consultations here with different stakeholder groups in connection with the forthcoming General Budget 2019-20.

After her first meeting with the stakeholder groups from agriculture and rural development sectors, Sitharaman met with representatives from industry, trade and services sectors in the second meeting.

In her opening remarks, Sitharaman said that the central government has taken several industry specific initiatives since 2014 that had significantly improved the overall business environment, read a statement from the ministry.

She said that the emphasis was given to simplification and rationalisation of the existing rules and introduction of Information Technology to make governance more efficient and effective. As a result, the Finance Minister said that India has considerably improved its ranking to 77th position among 190 countries and has kept 23 ranks over its rank of 100 in the Doing Business Report 2018 as per the World Bank Doing Business (DB) Report, 2019, the statement from the ministry added.

Sitharaman also mentioned that since 24 per cent of the total work force in India is in the industrial sector, in order to reap the benefits of demographic dividend, industry should be able to accommodate more work force.

The meeting was also attended by Anurag Thakur, Minister of State for Finance and Corporate Affairs, Subhash C Garg, Finance Secretary, Girish Chandra Murmu, Expenditure Secretary, Ajay Narayan Pandey, Revenue Secretary, Rajeev Kumar, Secretary, DFS, Atanu Chakraborty, Secretary, DIPAM, Yogendra Tripathi, Secretary, Ministry of Tourism, Amit Khare, Secretary, Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, Ramesh Abhishek, Secretary, Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade, Anup Wadhawan, Secretary, Department of Commerce, Ministry of Commerce and Industry, Pramod Chandra Mody, Chairman, CBDT, PK Das, Chairman, CBIC, KV Subramanian, CEA and other senior officials of the Ministry of Finance.

With a view to give boost to the Indian economy, the representatives of industry, services and trade sectors submitted several suggestions concerning industrial sector, land reforms, special economic zones, industrial policy, investment in research and development, simplification of tax regimes, tapping potential in tourism sector, Foreign Direct Investment (FDI), Goods and Services Tax (GST), Capital Gains Tax, Corporate Tax, MSME Sector, e-commerce, skill development, education and healthcare sectors, start-ups, media and entertainment sector and food manufacturing industry.

Representatives of industry, services and trade sectors included Vikram S Kirloskar, President, Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), Balkrishan Goenka, President, ASSOCHAM, Sandip Somany, President, FICCI, Pramod Agrawal, chairman, Gem & Jewellery Export Promotion Council, Animesh Saxena, president, Federation of Indian Micro and Small & Medium Enterprises (FISME), Ajit Kumar, Director, Hinduja Group, Rajni Aggarwal, President, Federation of Indian Women Entrepreneurs (FIWE), Panaruna Aqeel Ahmed, Chairman, Council for Leather Exports, Florence Shoe Co. Pvt. Ltd, Rahul Bothra, CFO, Swiggy, Bundl Technologies Pvt. Ltd, Ajay Sahai, Director General and CEO, Federation of Indian Export Organisations, Raj Nair, President, IMC Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Gopal Srinivasan, Chairman, TVS Capital Fund Pvt. Ltd, PR Venketrama Raja, Vice Chairman, MD and CEO, Ramco Systems, Sachin Taparia, Chairman and CEO, local Circles India Pvt Ltd.