Budget 2016-17 to be tabled on February 29: Sinha

The government will present the Budget for 2016-17 on February 29 and, set out a roadmap for the next three years, Minister of State for Finance Jayant Sinha said on Thursday.

"We are working hard on Budget that will be presented on February 29 and that will establish a roadmap for two or three years," he said here addressing the India-Korea Business Summit.

"We have consistently followed a very clear set of economic policie. We have laid out economic principles very well and we are very confident that we will be able to sustain high growth over a long period of time," he said.

Sinha also said the government's priority is to eliminate poverty.

"We are both a pro-poor and pro-market government. We believe in empowerment and not entitlement.

"So we are pro-poor government but because we are pro-poor government, we are pro-market government as well. If competition does not flourish, if market and companies do not flourish, how can we generate economic surplus... the tax revenues that will enable us to eliminate poverty," he said.

Noting that the government had on Wednesday announced the National Crop Insurance Programme to protect farmers from crop damage caused by natural calamities, Sinha also said the government had launched a major programme on irrigation.

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley is, in this period, holding pre-budget consultations with industry chambers and other stakeholders.