Jaitley to have pre-Budget meeting with finance sector regulators

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley will on Friday chair a pre-Budget consultation meeting with financial sector regulators, according to official sources on Thursday.

Finance Ministry sources here said that Jaitley would chair the meeting of the Financial Stability and Development Council (FSDC) which is likely to discuss issues related to the fiscal position, external sector environment, financial sector reforms, rising non-performing assets (NPAs), or bad loans, in the banking system and regulatory matters in the run-up to the Union Budget presentation in February.

The FSDC members include the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Governor as well as heads of regulatory bodies like Sebi for the capital markets and IRDAI for the insurance sector.

Senior Finance Ministry officials would also be attending Friday's meeting, the sources said.

They also said that apart from offering proposals for the forthcoming Budget, the FSDC would also review the measures taken by the government and the RBI for dealing with NPAs and initiating insolvency proceedings against defaulting promoters.

The government announced on Wednesday that it will undertake additional market borrowing of Rs 50,000 crore in the remaining period of the current fiscal to meet expenditure, raising concerns about it being able to meet the fiscal deficit target for the year.

--IANS

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