With the economy reporting a sluggish growth of 5 per cent in the last quarter of the current financial year, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Sunday said that her government was prepared to respond to the industry's "needs and suggestions."
Finance Minister Sitharaman, who was talking to media persons here, said the government has consulted various sectors on the measures they expect and the government was responding to the industry's requirements.
When asked if the government acknowledges there is a slowdown in the economy, she said: "I am meeting industries and taking their inputs, suggestions on what they want and expect from government. I am responding to them. I have already done this twice. I will do it more number of times so that every industry which has approached me, I will respond."
"Across the board there is no one particular answer that I can give, saying this is the magic wand. Sectorally, what they want, we are responding. Agriculture, for instance, after this monsoon hopefully, overall we feel that monsoon will meet the basic requirement of agriculture. Even for the farming sector, we have consultations going on. I am sure we will able to respond to them also," she said.
She said that the government is in consultation with sectors which wanted to speak to us about various measures they expect. "Having heard them and having spent some time on how we can respond, the first tranche of announcements were made on August 23. Last Friday, I made another set of announcements. The process of consultations is over. We have worked on how we can respond," she said.
The Finance Minister said the issues of each sector vary. "Automobile (sector) has an issue. Agriculture has a different issue. So each sector has a sectoral requirement, which we want to respond," she said.
Earlier in the day, former Prime Minister hit out at Prime Minister Narendra Modi led BJP government at the Centre, alleging that its "all-round mismanagement" is responsible for the "worrisome" state of the economy.
"The state of the economy today is deeply worrying. The last quarter's GDP growth rate of 5 per cent signals that we are in the midst of a prolonged slowdown. India has the potential to grow at a much faster rate but all-round mismanagement by the Modi government has resulted in this slowdown," said Singh in a statement.
"Our youth, farmers and farmworkers, entrepreneurs and the marginalised sections deserve better. India cannot afford to continue down this path. Therefore, I urge the government to put aside vendetta politics, and reach out to all sane voices and thinking minds, to steer our economy out of this man-made crisis," Singh added.
( With inputs from ANI )