Budget 2021: Govt is facilitator, private sector driver of growth, says Sitharaman
Feb 21, 2021
Bengaluru (Karnataka) [India], February 21 : The Union Budget 2021-22 is about the role of government as a facilitator and the private sector as a key driver of economic growth, without which the country would be losing a big opportunity, said Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Sunday.
In her post-Budget address to members of PHD (Progress, Harmony and Development) Chamber of Commerce in Bengaluru, Sitharaman said, "The most important component or input required here is the participation of the private sector. Unless the private sector is energised enough, facilitated enough, India is just losing a very big opportunity."
According to the Finance Minister, the coronavirus vaccine was a big example of a government-private partnership. Sitharaman noted that the budget was about setting the path for the decade. She said, "... It is a Budget not just for this year, it is a Budget for setting the path for the decade."
Sitharaman also highlighted the country's growing and aspiring needs and demands across the various sectors cannot be served just by the state and central governments.
"To be a world leader with that specific India touch, which is more humane, more about bringing everybody together, which is peaceful, which actually wishes that the world progresses for everybody's good. If that is the way India approaches its responsibility, that will be incomplete unless the government plays the role, it is expected to play the facilitator and unless the private sector plays the role of a key driver. So that is the message this budget has talked about," she said.
"Without interrupting the pace of recovery gradually we have to do everything to take the fiscal management. Debt to GDP (Gross domestic product) and other indicators which are important for a healthy economy has to be carefully managed in such a way that sooner in a sense, in a reasonable time frame, the fiscal deficit will also be kept under the healthy level and not left unattended for decades together," Sitharaman underlined.
