Early budget will help getting funds authorised for sectors at start of FY: PM

The Dollar Business Bureau

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday said that advancing the budget presentation date would help to get funds marked for various sectors at the beginning of the financial year.

A change in the cycle of budget would have an effect on the real economy, he said while addressing the economists at a meeting by NITI Aayog on “Economic Policy - The Road Ahead.”

“The date of budget presentation is being advanced so that expenditure is authorised by the time the new financial year begins,” Modi said.

It has been proposed by the government to present the Union Budget 2017-18 on the first day of February instead of the regular February 28. There will also be no separate budget for railways from the next financial year as it has been decided by the government to merge it with general budget.

The Prime Minister said that under the current budget calendar, the expenditure authorisation comes with the start of monsoon that results in government schemes remaining inactive in the productive months before monsoon.

Modi sought views of the economists for the upcoming budget in the areas of job creation, skill development, agriculture, and education, and he underlined the need to engage youth to speed up the pace of economic development.

During the meet, economists also shared their views on several themes like agriculture, education, job creation, digital technology, taxation, banking, housing, tourism, data driven policy, governance reforms and future measures for growth.

Experts from agriculture sector suggested to incentivise the states to take on market reforms, generate corpus fund to promote micro irrigation and farm mechanisation, and offer subvention on interest for term loans, etc, to double the farm income by 2022.

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, NITI Aayog Vice Chairman Arvind Panagariya and senior officials from the Central Government, among others, attended the meeting.