Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Wednesday concluded the pre-Budget meetings for the upcoming Union Budget 2022-23. The finance minister met representatives and stakeholders from various sectors ahead of the Budget to take their inputs. This year, the meetings were conducted in virtual mode from December 15-22. More than 120 invitees representing seven stakeholder groups participated in eight meetings scheduled during this period. "The stakeholder groups include representatives and experts from agriculture and agro processing industry; industry, infrastructure and climate change; financial sector and capital markets; services and trade; social sector; trade union and labour organisation and economists," a release from the Ministry of Finance said.
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The stakeholder groups made several suggestions on various issues that included increased R&D spending, infrastructure status for digital services, incentives to hydrogen storage and fuel cell development, rationalisation of income tax slabs, investments in online safety measures etc., among others. Sitharaman thanked the participants for sharing their valuable suggestions and assured that the suggestions will be carefully considered while preparing the Budget 2022-23, it added. The meetings were also attended by Ministers of State for Finance Pankaj Chaudhary and Bhagwat Kishanrao Karad, secretaries from various departments of finance ministry, other senior officers from the ministry, secretaries of other ministries and departments, among others.
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