Summary:
Chennai, Sep 13 (PTI) Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Monday said that the trust between government and industry is critical for leveraging the opportunities thrown up by the COVID-19 pandemic while assuring that the proposed DFI, the National Bank for Infrastructure Financing and Development (NaBFID), will become functional soon.
This trust is also reflected in the government"s actions, she said while addressing members of industry chamber CII here.
Elaborating on the government"s strategy for handling the pandemic, the minister said that on one hand the focus is on ramping up vaccination as that was the biggest protection against the pandemic while on the other hand the government is working on ramping up health infrastructure, including in the tier 2 and tier 3 cities, by supporting the private sector.
The Finance Minister expressed confidence that the announced disinvestment plan is on track.
Sitharaman in her 2021-22 Budget speech, had announced a big-ticket privatisation agenda, including privatisation of two public sector banks and one general insurance company.
The Centre budgeted Rs 1.75 lakh crore from stake sale in public sector companies including strategic sale of IDBI Bank, BPCL, Shipping Corp, Container Corporation, Neelachal Ispat Nigam Ltd, among others.She also assured that the Development Finance Institution (DFI) announced in the budget would be operational soon.