Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Thursday spoke at the CII annual conclave on the government’s efforts to push reforms during the Covid-19 pandemic to revive economic growth in India.
Assuring India Inc on the steps taken by the Union government through the collective thinking and participation of the stakeholders to rejuvenate the economy.
Expressing her gratitude to the industry in her CII Annual Meeting 2021 address, the finance minister applauded the efforts to fight the challenges posed by both waves of the pandemic.
Sitharaman stressed poverty could be dealt with by boosting growth, although not compromising on inflation. She further added that the government had authorized the Reserve Bank of India to keep inflation unchanged, with a tolerance level of 2 percent on either side.
“You would have observed that in Modi 2.0 particularly and even earlier, the relationship with the RBI has been one of those in which we are working as partners to address the issues of the economy, even now, even during the pandemic,” the finance minister said.
She said that the central bank, along with the government, is working to achieve the goal. Mentioning the government as an active participant in boosting the economic recovery, the finance minister stated the core sector grew at around 9 percent due to the public spending amidst the pandemic.
Speaking on withdrawing liquidity, Sitharaman said that the central bank cannot begin pulling back liquidity as the Indian economy is recovering from the impact of the two major pandemic waves.
“I am glad that RBI (Reserve Bank of India) understands that quicker retrieval of the liquidity from the economy may not do the necessary things to win,” she said.
The finance minister further said that due to the confidence of the foreign investors in the macro-economic fundamentals of India, FDI has been consistently flowing into the nation even with the economic slowdown.
Sitharaman underlined the country’s foreign exchange reserves, which are $620 billion as of July 2021.
“The messages and indications which are coming are very clear that the economy is revving to come out.”
Speaking on the disinvestment program of the Centre, announced in the budget this year, FM said that they would meet the targets this year.
“Yes, all that will happen. And we will push for them to happen this year. Necessary rigorous work is going on. And we, therefore, commit ourselves to the disinvestment which was announced in the budget.
Aside from disinvestment and privatization, we are also looking at asset monetization,” Sitharaman said.
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