Union finance minister Arun Jaitley said on Monday that his Budget proposals are built on “transformative agenda with nine distinct pillars”, including agriculture and farmers’ welfare and infrastruct
Union finance minister Arun Jaitley said on Monday that his Budget proposals are built on “transformative agenda with nine distinct pillars”, including agriculture and farmers’ welfare and infrastructure and investment.
“Our agenda for the next year is to ‘transform India’,” said the finance minister.
The minister said the focus of the Budget is to double farmers’ income in five years.
“We are grateful to our farmers for being the backbone of the country’s food security. We need to think beyond ‘food security’ and give back to our farmers a sense of ‘income security’. The government will, therefore, reorient its interventions in the farm and non-farm sectors to double the income of the farmers by 2022,” said the finance minister.
He said that the second pillar of his Budget is rural sector, with emphasis on rural employment and infrastructure. Mr Jaitley said that the Budget focuses on social sector, including healthcare, to cover all under welfare and health services.
He called education, skills and job creation to make India a knowledge-based and productive society as another critical area where the Budget is focusing.
The finance minister said the Budget is also focusing on governance and ease of doing business to enable the people to realise their full potential and on tax reforms.
He also termed fiscal discipline as another major pillar of this year’s Budget.
