They were with the Minister of Finance and Corporate Affairs Nirmala Sitharaman as part of pre-Budget consultations.
"The main areas of discussion during the meeting included boosting economic growth, job-oriented growth, increased macro-economic stability and fiscal management," the statement from finance ministry said.
The economists suggested that this Budget should set the tone for the next five years, and that it is a unique opportunity to promote manufacturing through 'Make in India'.
The meetings saw various other suggestions related to tariff reforms, removing bottlenecks in supply-chain, EXIM policy for agriculture, removal of specific duties on textiles, maintaining fiscal consolidation, revival of Inter-State Councils for holistic domestic growth, boosting employment by focusing on skilling and giving a fillip to the services and manufacturing sector.
They also proposed steps for macroeconomic stabilisation and structural reforms for long-term growth while seeking stability of tax rates, reduction of tariffs, further simplification of GST, implementation of Direct Tax Code, promoting labour intensive sectors and constitution of independent fiscal policy committee.
Manoj Panda, Director, Institute of Economic Growth, said he has suggested to the government to let farmers learn how to face market with state support. The government should recalibrate the subsidies, lessening the burden on the government while protecting the interests of the farmers.
He said subsidies should not be removed completely, but the current regime of subsidies is not viable. It adds to the spending of the exchequer and it is inefficient at the crop level, distorting the market prices.
The government has been offering farmers a variety of subsidies such as Direct Income Transfer where Rs 6,000 is accounted towards landless farmers.
Atul Gupta, Vice Chairman, Indian Chartered Accountant Association, said the meeting discussed how to mobilise more resources, while keeping transparency.
Along with the Finance Minister, the meeting was attended by Rajiv Kumar, Vice-chairman, NITI Aayog, Subhash C. Garg, Finance Secretary, Ajay Bhushan Pandey, Revenue Secretary, Rajiv Kumar, Secretary, DFS Girish Chandra Murmu, Expenditure Secretary, Atanu Chakraborty, Secretary, DIPAM, Pramod Chandra Mody, Chairman, CBDT, P.K. Das, Chairman, CBIC, Dr K.V. Subramanian, CEA and other senior officials of the Ministry of Finance.
( With inputs from IANS )