The Union Minister of Finance Nirmala Sitharaman started her Pre-Budget Consultations with different stakeholder Groups in connection with the forthcoming General Budget 2019-20 in New Delhi on Tuesday.

Her second Meeting was with the stakeholder Groups from Industry, Trade and Services Sectors.

In her Opening Remarks, the Finance Minister, Sitharaman said that the Central Government has taken several industry specific initiatives since 2014 that had significantly improved the overall business environment.

She said that the emphasis was given to simplification and rationalization of the existing rules and introduction of Information Technology to make governance more efficient and effective.

As a result, the Finance Minister said that India has considerably improved its ranking to 77th position among the 190 countries and has kept 23 ranks over its rank of 100 in the Doing Business Report 2018 as per the World Bank Doing Business (DB) Report, 2019.

The Finance Minister, Sitharaman also mentioned that since 24 % of the total work force in India is in industrial sector, therefore, in order to reap the benefits of demographic dividend, industry should be able to accommodate more work force, the Minister concluded.

Along with the Finance Minister, the meeting was attended by officials from CII, Assocham, FICCI, FISME, FIWE, etc.

With a view to give boost to Indian economy, the representatives of  Industry, Services and Trade Sectors submitted several suggestions concerning Industrial sector, land reforms, special economic zones, industrial policy, investment in research and development, simplification of tax regimes, tapping potential in tourism sector, Foreign Direct Investment (FDI), Good & Services Tax (GST), Capital Gains Tax, Corporate Tax, MSME Sector, e-commerce, skill development, education and healthcare sectors, start-ups, media and entertainment sector and food manufacturing industry.