Union minister for finance and corporate affairs Nirmala Sitharaman has concluded the pre-budget consultation meetings for Budget 2023-24 that were held from November 21 to 28 in the virtual mode.

More than 110 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 unions and labour organisations and economists, an official release said Monday.

Union ministers of state for finance Pankaj Chaudhary and Dr. Bhagwat Kishanrao Karad, finance secretary T.V. Somanathan; DEA secretary Ajay Seth, chief economic advisor Dr. V. Anantha Nageswaran, DIPAM secretary Tuhin Kanta Pandey, financial services secretary Vivek Joshi, corporate affairs secretary Manoj Govil; OSD, Revenue, Sanjay Malhotra, and senior officers from the ministry of finance were also present during the meetings. The secretaries of other ministries/departments concerned participated through online mode.

The representatives of the stakeholder groups made a number of suggestions for the forthcoming budget that included mechanism for green certification to help MSMEs , urban employment guarantee programme to boost employment generation in urban areas, rationalisation of income tax, creation of innovation clusters, schemes for  improving domestic supply chains,  reduction of taxes on electric vehicle, introduction of EV policy,  measures to promote India as a hub for Green Hydrogen, Social Sector Entrepreneurship Fund for Social Impact Companies, Training and Accreditation of Care Economy Workers, portable social benefit for children, National Regulatory Authority for Water and Sanitation, coverage of unorganised workers under ESIC, continuation of Public Capex, fiscal consolidation and lower customs duties, among others.

The finance minister thanked the participants for sharing their valuable suggestions and assured that suggestions would be carefully considered while preparing the Budget 2023-24.