The Indian economy is witnessing “clear signs of revival” and this has to be sustained, said Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, on Thursday.

She added that government is seeking suggestions from industry captains and different chambers of commerce on how to sustain this growth momentum.

Referring to the previous interactions she had with industry captains, Sitharaman said that such constant engagement have strength to see through the Covid-19 situation and helped the government come up with different stimulus packages. She conceded that disruption caused by the pandemic was so huge that “any amount of intervention would not be adequate.”

“I concede that any amount of fiscal generosity would not be enough in the situation. However, we came up with a number of steps that included three Atmanirbhar Bharat packages and interventions by the Reserve Bank of India,” she said during a session of the Indian Chamber of Commerce.

Assuring industry that public expenditure “at a better pace”, the Finance Minister maintained that infrastructure spending will continue to be a focus area.

‘Growth must sustain’

“We are seeing clear signs of revival across the board and this has to be sustained. But for this momentum to sustain the Government also needs to be told what more it can do and what are the sectors where the industry expects government to stay away and watch. We are open to the chambers of commerce and industry captains put in their suggestions,” Sitharaman said.

“I can assure you in the next Budget public expenditure will continue with better pace. Infra (expenditure) will be kept up,” she added.

The intentions on infrastructure has been made clear with the National Infrastructure Pipeline (NIP) being given priority while the National Infrastructure and Investment Fund (NIIF) is doing it’s best to attract funds from abroad.

“Several sovereign funds have already come into India,” Sitharaman said.

Macros fundamentally strong

According to the Minister, India’s macro economy is fundamentally strong. This has been reiterated through “inward flow of FDIs” rather than FIIs coming in.

“There is an inward FDI flow in India and this is much higher than many of the emerging economies of the world,” she said adding that the Centre will continue on with this disinvestment agenda.

“The government has already made it clear, even during the Pandemic, that it’s disinvestment efforts are going on fine,” Sitharaman said.

Labour reforms and agricultural sector reforms have also been taken up indicating that opportunities for “systematic changes” will not be let go of.

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