New Delhi, July 23: Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Tuesday announced in her Budget speech that the Government will go for Next Generation Reforms to formulate an economic policy framework to delineate the overarching approach to economic development and set the scope of the next generation of reforms for facilitating employment opportunities and sustaining high growth.
“Our government will initiate and incentivize reforms for improving the productivity of factors of production, and facilitating markets and sectors to become more efficient. “These reforms will cover all factors of production, namely land, labour, capital and entrepreneurship, and technology as an enabler of improving total factor productivity and bridging inequality,” she said.
Effective implementation of several of these reforms requires collaboration between the Centre and the states and building consensus, as the country’s development lies in the development of the states, the Finance Minister explained. She said to promote competitive federalism and incentivise states for faster implementation of reforms, “I propose to earmark a significant part of the 50-year interest-free loan. Working with the states, we will initiate the reforms”.
The Finance Minister said that land-related reforms and actions, both in rural and urban areas, will cover land administration, planning and management, urban planning, and building bylaws. These will be incentivised for completion within the next three years through appropriate fiscal support. Rural land-related actions will include the assignment of Unique Land Parcel Identification Number (ULPIN) or Bhu-Aadhaar for all lands, digitisation of cadastral maps, a survey of map sub-divisions as per current ownership, the establishment of land registry, and linking to the farmers’ registry.
These actions will also facilitate credit flow and other agricultural services, she added. The Finance Minister also said that land records in urban areas would be digitised with GIS mapping. An IT-based system for property record administration, updating, and tax administration will be established.
These will also facilitate the improvement of the financial position of local urban bodies. She also said that the government will facilitate the provision of a wide array of services to labour, including those for employment and skilling. A comprehensive integration of the eShram portal with other portals will facilitate such one-stop solution. The Shram Suvidha and Samadhan portals will be revamped to enhance ease of compliance for industry and trade, she added.
The Finance Minister also said that to meet the financing needs of the economy, the government will bring out a financial sector vision and strategy document to prepare the sector in terms of size, capacity, and skills. This will set the agenda for the next five years and guide the work of the government, regulators, financial institutions, and market participants.
IANS