Ahead of Union Budget, PM meets key Secretaries

This is the second meeting of the Prime Minister with key Secretaries after taking office for the second term.

New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday met the Finance Ministry Secretaries along with Secretaries of few other ministries and Niti Aayog CEO on suggestions and roadmap for the economy and the upcoming Union Budget 2019-2020.

This is the second meeting of the Prime Minister with key Secretaries after taking office for the second term.

According to sources, at the meeting at his official residence, Modi discussed the roadmap for reform in every department. The sources also said that the discussion featured the subject of the increase in the revenue mop-up and taking steps to push GDP growth.

The budget to be presented by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, on July 5, is expected to address issues like the slowing economy, the liquidity crisis in the non-banking financial companies, and the agrarian crisis among others.

Liquidity crisis, which came to light after the IL&FS crisis, has hit the economy hard across segments from trade to real estate.

The Union Budget for the financial year 2019-2020 gains significance as the economy is going through a rough patch with the GDP growth rate declining to 5.8 per cent during the January-March quarter of the financial year 2018-19, from 7.7 per cent on a year-on-year basis.

The employment rate in the country also has hit a 45-year low. Job creation will be a major task for the new government.