Budget 2024: Private Sectors Involvement In First Three Employment Schemes Almost Passive, Says TV Somanathan

The five employment schemes announced as part of budget 2024 reflects government is working with the private sector. But the sector's role in the first three schemes is close to passive, according to Finance Secretary TV Somanathan.

"It (the three schemes) is for the people they recruit. We are not directing them to recruit anyone," Somanathan told NDTV Profit.

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman presented the Union Budget 2024 on Tuesday, with big push to employment and skill development.

The scheme for the manufacturing sector applies only for first timers. These schemes are more like incentives and will push the companies to offer more employment, he said.

The government received higher-than-expected dividend from the Reserve Bank of India and will be receiving good dividends from other PSUs. It has used this additional cushion in terms of receipts, partly for these employment schemes, Somanathan said.

Hardly anything was collected through the angel tax, he said, which has been abolished in this budget. The number of people subject to the tax was small, he pointed out.

Disinvestment needs to be better understood in a broader light than just as privatisation, according to Tuhin Kanta Pandey, secretary of Department of Investment and Public Asset Management. Disinvestment in itself is a continuum and it is subsumed by the overall value creation strategy, he said.