Prime Minister Modi Likely To Meet Finance Ministry Officials On June 20, To Discuss Road Map For Boosting Growth

Ahead of the Budget, Prime Minister Narendra Modi is likely to meet all five departments of the finance ministry on June 20 to discuss road map for boosting country's growth and generating jobs. According to sources, the Goods and Services Tax Council's meeting scheduled for June 20 has been deferred by a day in view of the premier's meeting.

Modi is likely to discuss the roadmap for every department and the agenda for increasing revenue mop-up and taking reform steps to push GDP growth which has slipped to 5-year low of 6.8 percent in 2018-19.

The meeting comes at a time when the finance ministry is in the process of finalising the 2019-20 Budget, which will be unveiled by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on July 5. Among other issues, the 100-day agenda for the Modi 2.0 government would come up for discussion. In April, the Prime Minister's Office had asked all ministries to prepare agenda for the new government.

The five departments under the ministry are Economic Affairs, Revenue, Expenditure, Financial Services and the Department of Investment and Public Asset Management. While Department of Economic Affairs is likely to give a presentation on the state of economy, including growth, employment generation and inflation, Department of Revenue is likely to highlight steps taken to increase tax base, improve compliance, and road ahead for GST.

The Expenditure Department will talk about savings on account of Direct Benefit Transfer and showcase allocations to various schemes and programmes of the government and steps taken to ensure that money is spent for the earmarked purposes.

Financial Services department on its part will talk about liquidity issues and the problems being faced by NBFC sector, banks and financial institutions. The DIPAM is likely to list the CPSEs which can go for disinvestment and strategic sale in the current fiscal.