New Delhi: The Union Finance Ministry has kick-started the process to prepare the annual Budget for 2021-22. This will be the third Budget of Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and eighth of the Narendra Modi government.
The upcoming Budget will be crucial for the country as it will have to deal with impact of pandemic which has affected all segments of the economy, including revenue collection, disinvestment, expenditure, exports and food prices.
The economy is projected to contract by a massive 10.3 per cent this year, according to an IMF forecast. Even the Reserve Bank of India expects the economy to shrink by 9.5 per cent in the current financial year.
According to the Finance Ministry schedule, the nearly one-month long exercise to finalise the Revised Estimate (RE) for 2020-21 and Budget Estimate (BE) for 2021-22 began on Friday. The meetings will conclude on 12 November.