Jaitley to begin pre-budget consultations from Jan 4

Govt has invited suggestions from public for 2016-17 Budget, suggestions can be posted on http://mygov.nic.in portal

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley will start pre-budget consultations with different stakeholders such as industry, trade unions, and economists from January 4.

Jaitley, who would be presenting his second full-year Budget in February end, will hold pre-budget discussions with agriculture group and trade unions on Monday, followed by economists and industry on January 6 and the IT sector the next day.

He would seek views of financial sector regulators on January 11, and of social sector, banks and financial institutions on January 12, the finance ministry said.

The customary pre-budget consultations are considered important as it helps government in formulating policies.

Government has also invited suggestions from the public for 2016-17 Budget in its bid to make the exercise more broad. The suggestions can be posted on http://mygov.nic.In portal.

Government has already begun budgetary exercise with Department of Expenditure holding meetings with officials of other ministries and departments.

The meetings were aimed at firming up Budget estimates for 2016-17 for Plan and non-Plan expenses.

Jaitley in his second budget, third if the interim presentation of 2014 is counted, is likely to focus on steps to accelerate economic growth that seems to have stagnated in 7-7.5 per cent range amid global slowdown.

The Finance Minister's Budget team comprises Minister of State for Finance Jayant Sinha, Chief Economic Advisor Arvind Subramanian and NITI Aayog vice chairman Arvind Panagariya.

The official team is led by Finance Secretary Ratan Watal, DEA Secretary Shaktikanta Das, Revenue Secretary Hasmukh Adhia and Disinvestment Secretary Neeraj Gupta.