PM Modi, team to start pre-Budget consultations next week

TIL Desk/National/New Delhi/ Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his economic departments have lined up a series of meetings with economists and advisors next week to discuss ideas, which may find their way into the 2020-21 Budget, in a bid to boost the sagging economy.

On December 19, the NITI Aayog will hold a meeting with public and private sector economists; the next day, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman will meet experts for pre-Budget consultations, and on December 21, the prime minister will receive briefings and presentations from various departments, and advisors.

In the 2020-21 Budget, the prime minister and the finance minister are keen to stamp their narrative, after various rollbacks following the previous Budget, said top government sources.Besides the scheduled meetings, the sources said, the Prime Minister’s Office is expected to hold several meetings with top secretaries and officials on various ongoing schemes, their performance and also how some of them could be tweaked for better results.