In a pre-budget meeting with Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, the economists urged the government to stress on improving macroeconomic stability, fiscal management by having an ideal size of public sector borrowing requirements and increasing investments.
“The fiscal and monetary policy need to be improved,” S Mahendra Dev, director at Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research, said after the meeting. Despite interest rate cuts by the Reserve Bank of India, banks are not transmitting the lower rates, he said.
Other suggestions by the economists include promoting manufacturing through Make in India, boosting employment by focusing on skill development, and offering fillip to the services sector, according to a government statement.
Besides, economist Arvind Virmani said the government should simplify the goods and services tax and implement labour reforms to attract investments.
Manoj Panda, director at Institute of Economic Growth, suggested liberalising agriculture by recalibrating subsidies to protect the interest of farmers. The current regime of subsidies adds to exchequer's burden and is inefficient at the crop level, and distorts market prices, Panda told reporters.
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