Hoping to give a boost to the economy in the next fiscal, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Monday kicked off preparations for the Union Budget 2016-17 with a discussion with eminent economists on possible measures to contain the fiscal deficit, boost agricultural productivity and improve tax transparency.

While Jaitley did not comment after the two-hour meeting, Minister of State for Finance Jayant Sinha, after the talks at the NITI Aayog, said the discussions centred on boosting farm sector production, fiscal expenditure and public investment.

“We also spoke about the financial sector … more credit for agriculture, MSMEs and what we could do to further strengthen our banks,” Sinha said, adding that talks also focussed on job creation for the young people and whether it should be in the manufacturing or services sector.

Sources said the domestic taxation structure was also discussed and comments were sought on how to further simplify it and make it more transparent.

“The Government is keen to project the country as an attractive investment destination and taxation is a key component. Already in this year’s Budget, the Government has announced reduction of corporate tax rate to 25 per cent along with elimination of all subsidies,” said a person familiar with the development, adding that the roll out of the goods and services tax and its positive impact was also discussed.

“It is very early in the cycle to start the consultation. But we felt that if there were good ideas, we could incorporate them even in this fiscal. It was a very good interaction and we look forward to incorporating much of this for this fiscal as well as the coming fiscal,” Sinha said.

He also expressed confidence that the implementation of One Rank One Pension and increase in salary Bill due to the Seventh Pay Commission will not strain the government’s fiscal position in 2015-16. The Centre has set a target for the fiscal deficit at 3.9 per cent of the GDP in 2015-16.

This was the Finance Minister’s first such consultation before the next Budget although Revenue Secretary Hasmukh Adhia has met industry groups to get their suggestions on taxation policy.

Economists including Subir Gokarn, Director of Research at the Brookings Institution India’; Ajit Ranade, Chief Economist, Aditya Birla Group; Rajiv Lall, Vice-Chairman, IDFC Ltd, Tushar Poddar, Chief Economist (India), Goldman Sachs, and Sajjid Chinoy, Chief Economist (India), JP Morgan, attended the meeting.

The meeting was attended by NITI Aayog Vice-Chairman Arvind Panagariya, Reserve Bank of India Deputy Governor Urjit Patel as well as senior Finance Ministry officials, including Chief Economic Adviser Arvind Subramanian and Finance Secretary Ratan Wattal.

Besides, Revenue Secretary Hasmukh Adhia, Economic Affairs Secretary Shaktikanta Das and Financial Services Secretary Anjuly Chib Duggal also attended the meeting.

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