The Government is committed to reforms and will keep responding in terms of policy, governance and initiatives to inputs that will lift the animal spirits of industry, said Ms Nirmala Sitharaman, Honorable Finance Minister addressing and interacting with industry leaders at the CII India Today Group Budget Roundtable.

Fiscal discipline has to be maintained and is governed by law but at the same time, Government will spend more on infrastructure, pep up consumption by putting more money in the hands of the people and undertake institutional reforms to increase liquidity which will help boost consumption, said Ms Sitharaman.

The Budget has addressed solvency, governance and liquidity issues to boost investors' confidence as well as consumption, said the Hon'ble Finance Minister.

“Agriculture needs reforms at the states' level and we need to work on legislative reforms like APMC Act, e-NAM which will take time and will be done in co-operation with the States. This will be the key to doubling farmers income”, she said.

The Government is ready to disinvest and the targets for disinvestment are realistic. “Government should not be doing things which it is not meant to do”, said the Hon'ble Finance Minister.

Responding to the suggestion on direction of corporate tax reduction, Ms Sitharaman said that the reduction in corporate tax for corporates with turnover upto Rs 400 crores covers about 99.7% of the corporates and the Government will look at further reduction over a period.

Mr Uday Kotak, President Designate, CII remarked that keeping fiscal deficit under control opens room for monetary actions to reduce interest rates and together with reduction in corporate taxes will help bring out the animal spirits.

Mr Chandrajit Banerjee, Director General, CII suggested that the Government may consider establishing empowered council of state and central ministers in land and labour like GST Council to push animal spirits.