The Union Minister of Finance and Corporate Affairs, Nirmala Sitharaman held a pre-budget consultation meeting with the leading economists ahead of the forthcoming general Budget 2019-20, here on Friday. This is her sixth pre-Budget consultation meeting with officials and representatives of the social sector group.

The main areas of discussion included boosting economic growth, job oriented growth, increased macro-economic stability, fiscal management including the ideal size of public sector borrowing requirements and increase in investments among others.

The meeting was attended by Vice-chairman, NITI Aayog Rajiv Kumar, Finance Secretary Subhash C. Garg, Revenue Secretary Ajay Bhushan Pandey and other officials of the Ministry of Finance.

The economists put forward their view that this Budget should set the tone for the next five years and is a unique opportunity to promote manufacturing through Make in India.

Various other suggestions received from economists related to tariff reforms, removing bottlenecks in supply-chain, EXIM policy for agriculture, removal of specific duties on textiles, maintaining fiscal consolidation, revival of Inter-State Councils for holistic domestic growth, boosting employment by focusing on skill and giving fillip to services and manufacturing sector, macroeconomic stabilisation and structural reforms for long-term growth, stability of tax rates, reduction of tariffs, further simplification of GST, implementation of Direct Tax Code etc.

The first session of the 17th Lok Sabha will be convened from June 17 to July 26 during which the Union Budget will be presented by the new government on July 5.