Twitterati pour advises for Sitharaman to rekindle economic growth

New Delhi: India’s new Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman might not have spilled the beans on her plans to accelerate the economic growth rate, but the avid twitterati has been getting notes and advises regarding her next moves on the social media platform.

Inundated with congratulatory messages, the Twitter handle of the new Minister of Finance and Corporate Affairs also contains in-depth advises on the next level of economic reforms and growth oriented moves that she should undertake.

As per Sitharaman’s Twitter handle, messages with themes such as the upcoming budget 2019, disinvestment, new economic reforms such as GST 2.0 have been gaining traction.

Shivam Mehra tweeted: “We need a great investment in agriculture and property industry as they are the back bone of every business there. Today businesses are running but not at the expected level. Markets need some investment to shoot up. (sic).”

On the Budget wishlist, Prasenjit Ghosh tweeted: “We need jobs! Reduce taxesIncentivize investments & exports Disinvest PSUs and give infra push Labour reforms to support SMEs (sic).”

Similarly, J.V. Naidu tweeted: “Spare some miney for middle class , increase NIL tax to 10L PA , so that people have money to spend and money rotation is there and economy increases.

“Give 1% rebate in GST for general public in retail sector who uses digital form of payment (sic).”

These advises are understandable, as in the last 48-hours, macro data points have painted a gloomy picture of the economy, showcasing a slowdown in GDP growth rate and contraction in core industries’ production.

Additionally, farm distress, unemployment and subdued consumer sentiment have aroused fears of a short-to-mid term slowdown.

Furthermore, the slowdown has become evident in sectors such as automobile, FMCG and aviation.

On the other hand, the relief came from another set of data which showed that India met its revised fiscal deficit target for the last fiscal year.

Even the various employee associations of the many departments under her Ministry assured Sitharaman of support, which she will require to boost revenues and control expenditure.

However, on whether any advise was adhered to or not will only be known once the hustle-and-bustle of the appointment subsides, and work begins on the full Union Budget for 2019-20.

The budget will be presented on July 5, in which the new government’s priorities and programmes will be known.

Besides the budget, the Economic Survey, which gives the status of the country’s economy, will be presented in Parliament on July 4.

On Friday, Sitharaman after being the second woman Defence Minister, the first being Indira Gandhi, became the second woman to head the Finance Ministry, after the former Prime Minister.

Sitharaman was among the three women who became part of the Union Cabinet in the 17th Lok Sabha.

Before Sitharaman, Indira Gandhi was the only female Finance Minister who served for a short period.

Prior to the Defence Ministry, Sitharaman held the Commerce and Industry portfolio.

Published on: June 2, 2019 at 14:21 IST

IANS