The government will focus on economic reforms to achieve higher growth in the union Budget due to be presented by the end of February, Minister of State for Finance Jayant Sinha said on Thursday (14 January).
Sinha said the government will present the Budget for 2016-17 on February 29, which will set a roadmap for the coming three years.
“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 while addressing India-Korea Business Summit in New Delhi.
“We have consistently followed a very clear set of economic policies…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.
Finance Minister Arun Jaitley in his second full-year budget is likely to focus on steps to accelerate economic growth that seems to have stagnated in 7-7.5 per cent range amid a 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.
Speaking on the priorities of the government, Sinha said the first and foremost responsibility is to eliminate poverty.
“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.
“We are both a pro-poor and pro-market government. We believe in empowerment and not entitlement,” he added.
Besides, he said, the government is working on increasing productivity of agriculture.
Yesterday, the government announced National Crop Insurance Programme to protect farmers from crop damage due to natural calamity, he said, adding, the government has launched major programme on irrigation.
The government is focusing on expanding social security benefit to all.
In addition, the government has carried out reforms in the financial sector and increased investment in infrastructure.
Speed of construction of National Highways has gone up from 3 km per day to 18 km per day and the aim is to build road 30 km per day.
A finance ministry official, who declined to be identified, later clarified that the date of the budget, usually delivered in February, would be set by Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Cabinet.
Jaitley is holding consultations with the country's industrial chambers and other stakeholders.
On Wednesday, financial regulators, including Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Governor Raghuram Rajan, met Jaitley and called on the government to stick to fiscal consolidation and improve the quality of spending to lift growth.
They also asked him to provide adequate funds to recapitalise banks weighed down with bad loans, and exempt life insurance premiums from service tax.
India has revised down its projection of economic growth to 7 per cent to 7.5 per cent for the current fiscal year that ends on March 31, from earlier estimate of 8.1 per cent to 8.5 per cent.
Jaitley said economic growth was expected to gain momentum in the coming quarters, as the impact of economic and structural reforms undertaken by the government takes firm root.
"We have achieved macro stability to a large extent but the growth moderation in the global economy and policy uncertainties among advanced countries pose a risk to this outlook," a finance ministry statement said, quoting Jaitley.
(PTI / Reuters)
