Union Budget 2021: Sitharaman holds pre-budget meeting with Finance Mins of States/UTs

With the Budget Session of the Parliament inching closer, Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman held the pre-budget meeting with Finance Ministers of all States and Union Territories on Monday morning via video conferencing. Along with Sitharaman, Finance Secretary AB Pandey, Expenditure Secretary TV Somanathan, DEA Tarun Bajaj and Chief Economic Advisor KV Subramaniam were present in the meeting. The Union Budget 2021-22 will be presented by Nirmala Sitharaman on February 1. 

Previously, the Finance Minister had chaired the pre-budget consultation meetings which witnessed the participation of 170 invitees representing nine stakeholder groups. Nearly 15 meetings were held between December 14 to December 23 with stakeholder groups which belonged to Financial and Capital Markets; Health, Education and Rural Development; Water and Sanitation; Trade Union and Labour Organization; Industry, Services and Trade; Infrastructure, Energy and Climate Change sector; Agriculture and Agro-Processing Industry; Industrialists; and Economists.

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The stakeholder groups had shared suggestions on several topics including fiscal policy, taxation, insurance, health and education budget and more. The participants had lauded the Union Government's efforts to flatten the COVID-19 curve and ensure a strong recovery in the economic growth in the second quarter of 2020-21. 

The Union Budget for the fiscal year 2021-22 assumes greater significance as the Centre aims to at a faster turnaround in the economy after the steep decline owing to the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent lockdown. India, which had in 2019 overtaken the UK to become the fifth-largest economy in the world, was knocked off course, due to the lockdown. The rate of GDP growth sank to a more than 10-year low of 4.2 per cent in 2019, down from 6.1 per cent the previous year.

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2021 budget to be paperless 

The Finance Ministry has decided to do away with the age-old tradition of printing the budget copies this year in view of the Coronavirus pandemic. This is the first time since independence, that the budget will be paperless. However, giving the entire process a digital push, the government has decided to provide soft copies of the budget to the lawmakers. Also, sources from ANI state that the traditional Halwa ceremony will be hosted 10 days prior to the presentation of Budget in the Parliament.

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