CNBC-TV18’s The Budget Townhall 2021 brought India Inc. face to face with the budget makers as they talked about why the growth and tax targets are realistic and shared their views on the road ahead. Here are the key highlights:

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Ajay Bhushan Pandey, Secretary, Finance Ministry: “The estimate that we have given both on the expenditure side as well as on the revenue side they are very realistic. So far as the current year is concerned we have already passed 10 months, we have a fairly good idea of how much we have collected and how much we have spent. What we have tried to do in this budget is that we have transparently put the revenue side as well as the expenditure side and then from there this fiscal deficit number that 9.5 percent as come in.”

Tarun Bajaj, Secretary, Economic Affairs: "This glide path is very much achievable and we have actually been very truthful while coming out with our numbers and we have not tried to overestimate or to bow before the people who have been saying that we should not move away from the 3 percent fiscal deficit target."

Arvind Panagariya, former VC of NITI Aayog said Budget 2021 ticks all the important boxes. According to Panagariya public enterprise policy, bank privatisation & LIC IPO are the key announcements of the Budget.

Panagariya said, "This Budget is absolutely mind-blowing. It has ticked practically every single box that you could think off. I think the public enterprise policy, privatisation of two banks, listing of LIC are very big announcements."

Guruprasad Mohapatra, Secretary of DPIIT: "Single window system that we are developing, we are committed to launch it by mid-April. The single window system attempts to integrate the approval making process of various departments in government of India as well as the state governments."

PC Mody, Chairman of CBDT said, “So far as the issue of extending the benefit of 15 percent to the services sector, I think this was not the correct moment to consider this issue since we were not considering any change in the tax rates or any extension of the new rates to the new sectors at this given point of time.”

CNBC-TV18 are the leaders in budget coverage and analysis across 22 union budgets in the last 20 years. This year, too, they took on the mantle of decoding the impact of the budget, by hosting a definitive analysis of Union Budget 2021 on a special 7th edition of ‘The Budget Townhall 2021.’ Hosted by Shereen Bhan, Managing Editor, CNBC-TV18, this event is one-of-its-kind interface between the leading voices of India Inc. and key figures from the Union Finance Ministry involved in the drafting of Union Budget, to offer the most incisive and comprehensive budget impact assessment.

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First Published:Feb 5, 2021 4:33 PM IST