Union Budget 2022-23: The pre-budget meeting with different stakeholders will continue on Thursday. Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman will hold her first meeting on Thursday with stakeholders from infrastructure and climate change.


The second meeting will be held in the afternoon with experts from financial sector and capital markets. The meeting will be held virtually through video conferencing. This information was tweeted by the official Twitter handle of the Finance Ministry. 






 


First Pre-Budget Meet With Experts From Agriculture Sector


On Wednesday, a joint meeting was held with experts from agriculture and Agro processing industries. The meeting was held by both Minister of State for Finance Pankaj Chaudhary and Bhagwat Karad.  Finance Ministry officials along with experts from these sectors were also present at the meetings. Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has not been able to attend the meeting as she was busy in Parliament. 






 


There are less than two months left for the budget for 2022-23 to be presented. Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman will present her fourth budget on February 1, 2022. The Finance Minister is expected to hold pre-budget meetings with industry representatives, health, education experts as well as economists, trade union leaders, MSMEs as well as startups besides the agriculture sector, agro-processing industry.


Budget To Be Presented Under Shadow Of Omicron Variant


It is expected that Finance Minister will have to prepare the Budget keeping in view the new variant of corona during the presentation of the Budget for 2022-23. However, it is a matter of satisfaction for the government that GST collection is increasing.


According to the latest GDP data, the economy is showing growth at 8.4 percent rate. It is believed that the finance minister's entire focus in the budget to be on strengthening infrastructure in the country. But rising inflation has become the biggest challenge for the Finance Minister.