Govt Committed To Policy Certainty, Industry Should Take More Risks: FM Nirmala Sitharaman

The government is committed to working towards ensuring policy certainty said Union Minister of Finance and Corporate Affairs Nirmala Sitharaman, while interacting with Industry captains at a Confederation of Indian Industries (CII) interaction held at Mumbai on Tuesday (24 August).

The regulators also had a key role in ensuring the same and the Government is working with them as well on this important issue, Sitharaman added.

Expressing the Government’s keenness to facilitate trends and sectors that are the future of the Indian economy, the Finance Minister acknowledged that there are seminal changes happening in the financial sector, which the government policy should facilitate.

The economy is moving gradually from a bank-led lending model to a more market-based finance model. Also once the Development Finance Institution is operational, it will perform the function of long-term lending which traditionally has been done by banks, a Finance Ministry statement said.

Sitharaman added that this would increase competition for the banks and also improve their efficiency.

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

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

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.