New Delhi, Nov 22 (KNN) The federal budget should adhere to the fiscal deficit target of 6.4 per cent of gross domestic product (GDP) for the current year and aim to reduce it to 6 per cent of GDP next year, the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) said on Monday.

The industry body in a statement after the pre-budget consultation meeting with Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, said the government should stick to their fiscal deficit target and should lay more stress on privatising state-run companies.

As per reports, the federal budget for the fiscal year is expected to be presented on Feb 1, 2023.

“There should be aggressive focus on privatization and the budget should also increase capital expenditure to 10 trillion rupees from this year’s estimated 7.5 trillion rupees,” CII pointed out.

Indian government has been struggling to privatise state-run firms and had to put on hold some of its earlier plans such as selling one of the flagship oil refiners Bharat Petroleum Corp Ltd, for which it failed to attract any suitors.

In 2020, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced plans to privatise most state-run companies, including banks, miners and insurers.

However, besides selling Air India to conglomerate Tata Group, India has not been able to privatise any major firms.  (KNN Bureau)