Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman will start pre-budget consultations on Friday, December 6 as part of the budget making process. The first meeting will be held with eminent economists on Friday. While presiding over the meeting, Sitharaman will seek suggestions from them regarding the upcoming budget amidst the lowest GDP print of 5.4 per cent in seven quarters in the second quarter of the current financial year. According to PTI news, after this there will be a meeting with farmer unions and agricultural economists and MSME sector stakeholders on December 7.
This will be Sitharaman's eighth full budget
The Union Budget 2025-26 is likely to be presented in Parliament on February 1. This will be the eighth full budget of Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and the second full budget of the Modi government, which will provide policy direction to achieve the goal of a developed India by 2047. The pre-Budget consultations will conclude on December 30 with consultations with leaders of Indian industry and the social sector, especially education and health.
These people will also be included
According to the news, Minister of State for Finance Pankaj Chaudhary, Finance Secretary and DIPAM Secretary Tuhin Kanta Pandey, Economic Affairs Secretary Ajay Seth, Revenue Secretary Sanjay Malhotra and Financial Services Secretary M Nagaraju are expected to be present in this consultation meeting. The budget for the current fiscal year had projected nominal GDP growth of 10.5 percent, while the fiscal deficit was pegged at 4.9 percent of gross domestic product (GDP).
Modi government had changed the budget tradition
In 2017, the government led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi had ended the colonial-era tradition of presenting the budget in late February. Former Finance Minister Arun Jaitley presented the annual accounts for the first time on February 1, 2017. With the rescheduled budget date, ministries are now allocated their budgetary funds from the beginning of the financial year starting from April. This gives government departments more leeway to spend and also gives companies time to adapt to business and taxation schemes.
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