New Delhi: Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said the Union Budget 2021-22 is about the role of government as a facilitator and the private sector as a key driver of economic growth, without which the country would be losing a big opportunity.
The most important component or input required here is the participation of the private sector. Unless the private sector is energised enough, unless it is facilitated enough, India is just losing a very big opportunity, Sitharaman said here during the interactive session organised by the Bangalore Chamber of Industry and Commerce.
Sitharaman underlined that the nation’s growing and aspiring needs and demands across the various sectors cannot be served just by the state government and central governments put together.
According to the Finance Minister, the coronavirus vaccine was a big example of government-private partnership. To be a world leader with that specific India touch, which is more humane, more about bringing everybody together, which is peaceful, which actually wishes that the world progresses for everybody’s good. If that is the way India approaches its responsibility, that will be incomplete unless the government plays the role, it is expected to play the facilitator and unless the private sector plays the role of a key driver. So that’s the message this budget has talked about, the Finance Minister told the gathering.
Sitharaman noted the budget was about setting the path for the decade.
She pointed out that the stimulus package, which largely depended on the government’s borrowing, was aimed at sectors which provided the multiplying effect such as infrastructure, where public expenditure was going to be undertaken. Observing that the Centre has clearly funded stimulus with the borrowed money, she said the government was aware of fiscal management.
Debt to GDP, other indicators which are important for a healthy economy, has to be carefully managed in such a way that sooner in a sense, in a reasonable time frame, the fiscal deficit will also be kept under the healthy level and not let unattended to for decades together, Sitharaman pointed out.