A Budget Built Around Three "Kartavyas"
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman presented the Union Budget 2026-27 in Parliament on February 1, 2026 — her ninth consecutive Budget, making her one of India's longest-serving finance ministers.
The Budget was structured around three "Kartavyas" (duties):
- accelerating sustainable economic growth,
- building people's capacity for employability and enterprise, and
- ensuring inclusive access to opportunity, in line with the Sabka Sath, Sabka Vikas vision.
Total government expenditure for FY 2026-27 is estimated at ₹53.47 lakh crore, a 7.7% increase over the previous year, while public capital expenditure was raised to ₹12.2 lakh crore — around 3.1% of GDP — to fuel infrastructure-led growth.
The fiscal deficit is budgeted at 4.3% of GDP, with the debt-to-GDP ratio targeted at 55.6%, down from 56.1% in the revised estimate for 2025-26.
Tax Reforms and Manufacturing Push
On taxation, the Budget confirmed that the new Income-tax Act, 2025 will take effect from April 2026, replacing the six-decade-old Income-tax Act, 1961, though no changes were made to existing income-tax slabs for FY27.
Compliance-easing measures included extending the deadline for filing revised returns from December 31 to March 31, and reducing Tax Collected at Source (TCS) rates on overseas tour packages and remittances for education and medical purposes.
On the industrial side, the Budget emphasised scaling up manufacturing across seven strategic frontier sectors, including a Biopharma SHAKTI initiative with a ₹10,000 crore outlay to build India's biologics and biosimilars manufacturing base, alongside a scheme to revive 200 legacy industrial clusters and a dedicated ₹10,000 crore SME Growth Fund to nurture "Champion SMEs."
Exam-relevant figures: ₹53.47 lakh crore total expenditure, ₹12.2 lakh crore capex, 4.3% fiscal deficit, and the Income-tax Act, 2025 effective from April 2026.
Source: pib.gov.in
