FM Nirmala to begin pre-budget meetings with stakeholders

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman will begin her pre-budget consultations with stakeholders across sectors on Wednesday. Over the course of a week, Sitharaman and her core team of budget-makers will seek inputs from trade and industry bodies, corporates, capital market participants, banks, farmer bodies, and small and medium enterprises, among others.

The inputs received may make their way into the Union Budget 2024, which Sitharaman is expected to present on 17th or 18th July.

Sitharaman and her team, including Finance Secretary TV Somanathan, Economic Affairs Secretary Ajay Seth, Chief Economic Advisor V Anantha Nageswaran and other senior bureaucrats will meet economists on Wednesday.

This will be followed by the heads of banks and financial institutions, and industry bodies like Confederation of Indian Industries (CII) and Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce & Industry (FICCI) on Thursday.

In the following days, Sitharaman and her team will meet farmers associations and rural economists, representatives of micro, small and medium enterprises, trade unions, service sector players, and employment and skilling bodies.

The norm in such meetings is that the government officials don’t speak much. They listen to various sectors presenting their wish lists and try to incorporate as much as possible in the budget.