Budget 2022: FM Nirmala Sitharaman addresses SEBI board

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Tuesday addressed the board of capital markets regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) in her customary post-Budget meeting.
 
Minister of State for Finance Bhagwat Kishanrao Karad and secretaries from the Ministry of Finance were also present during the meeting.
 

Union Finance Minister Smt. @nsitharaman addresses the 195th Board Meeting of the @SEBI_India, in a customary post-Budget meeting in New Delhi today. MoS for Finance Shri @DrBhagwatKarad and Secretaries of @FinMinIndia & Corporate Affairs also attended the meeting. pic.twitter.com/lHIyeDeCG7

— Ministry of Finance (@FinMinIndia) February 15, 2022

During the meeting, the finance minister emphasised the need for SEBI to take further steps to reduce compliance burden, reduce cost of market intermediation, take more investor protection measures, further develop the corporate bond market, develop green bond market in the context of increasing focus on ESG investment, initiate next generation of reforms to improve ease of doing business and be prepared for the possible market turbulence on account of US Fed actions, the regulator said in a release.

SEBI Chairman Ajay Tyagi briefed the finance minister about the major trends and outlook of Indian securities market, including fund raising activity, increased participation of individual investors, etc.

"He also apprised the Finance Minister about the status of implementation of last year's Union Budget proposals pertaining to capital market. Chairman, SEBI highlighted the enhanced activity of fund raising through capital market to support the overarching objective of Union Budget towards capital formation in the economy," the release said. 

It has been a custom that the Finance Minister addresses the board of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and SEBI after the Budget.
 
On Monday, Sitharaman had addressed the directors of the central board of RBI and outlined the thinking behind Union Budget 2022-23. She also highlighted the priorities of the government.
 
This year's Budget, presented earlier this month, estimates a nominal gross domestic product (GDP) growth of 11.1 per cent. The Centre expects this growth to be fuelled by a massive capital spending programme outlined in the Budget with a view to crowd-in private investment by reinvigorating economic activities and creating demand.

Sitharaman raised capex by 35.4 per cent for FY23 to Rs 7.5 lakh crore to continue the public investment-led recovery of the pandemic-battered economy. The capex this year is pegged at Rs 5.5 lakh crore.

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