Sitharaman assures policy certainty, urges industry to take more risks

New Delhi, Aug 25: Assuring India Inc that the government is committed towards ensuring policy certainty, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman asked the industry to come forward and take more risks.

During her interaction with industry leaders organised by the Confederation of Indian Industries (CII) at Mumbai on Tuesday, she noted that the regulators also had a key role in ensuring the same and the government is working with them as well on this important issue.

Praising the risk-taking ability of the start-ups, Sitharaman urged industry to also come forward and take risks and assured industry captains of addressing issues related to competitiveness, including high power tariffs, and the issues related to cumbersome regulatory compliances.

Expressing the government’s keenness to facilitate trends and sectors that are the future of the Indian economy, she acknowledged that there are seminal changes happening in the financial sector, which the government policy should facilitate, said an official statement.

The Finance Minister emphasised on the importance of government and industry working together to “create India’s own equity capital”.

Sitharaman also emphasised on identifying how the sunrise sectors and start-ups can contribute to the future of India and how the government could facilitate them. She said that this government believes in listening, working, and responding and would extend all possible support.

Earlier, while sharing the CII suggestions for a robust recovery, CII President T.V. Narendran said that for growth to take deep roots, sustained demand is critical, and the immediate source of demand has to be government expenditure.

Welcoming the government’s push to capital expenditure, he recommended frontloading of the committed capital expenditure, especially on infrastructure and added that the revenue buoyancy seen in the first quarter has created fiscal room for this.