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Budget 2025 Live Updates: FM Nirmala Sitharaman set to deliver her 8th Budget speech at 11 am; big changes, tax slab adjustments coming?
Finance Minister Sitharaman all set to deliver 8th Budget -File Photo
Budget 2025 Live Updates, India Union Budget 2025-26: Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman is all set to deliver her eighth Union Budget speech in Parliament within hours from now. Every Budget rekindles a chain of hopes and expectations that the finance minister may announce major economic reforms and income tax changes (especially in income tax slabs), with all sections of the economy having their long wishlists, and the Union Budget 2025-26 is no different. Now, What can various stakeholders—including salaried individuals, senior citizens, income tax payers, farmers and women—expect from the Finance Minister’s humble bahikhata this year?
Budget 2025 Live Updates, India Union Budget 2025-26: Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman is all set to deliver her eighth Union Budget speech in Parliament within hours from now. As the country’s first full-time woman finance minister, she’s known for introducing many firsts, blending tradition and style in her Budget presentations. Notably, she made a statement in 2019 by carrying a ‘bahi khata’ instead of the traditional red briefcase on Budget day. So, what can various stakeholders—businesses, salaried individuals, senior citizens, income tax assessees, farmers, women, and corporate and small businesses—expect from the Finance Minister’s humble bahikhata this year?
Every Budget rekindles a chain of hopes and expectations that the finance minister may announce major economic reforms, income tax changes (especially in income tax slabs), and financially friendlier changes across various sectors, with all sections of the economy having their long wishlists. And the Union Budget 2025-26 is no different.
Will there be big-ticket economic measures in the Narendra Modi 3.0 government’s second Budget?
Will the government maintain focus on key areas like farmers, jobs, education and healthcare in this Budget?
Will there be changes in the income tax structure or income tax slabs?
Will the middle class continue to be high on FM Nirmala Sitharaman’s priority list?
The wait will be over within hours from now! Catch the Finance Minister’s Budget announcements to get answers to all your questions.
India Union Budget 2025-26 | Follow this space for all the latest Budget 2025 updates as India witnesses the Union Budget 2025-26 on Saturday, February 1:
Latest Updates
Budget 2025 LIVE Updates: What can middle-class families expect in this year’s bahi khata?
Days ahead of the much-awaited February 1 Budget announcements, Zee Business connected with a middle-class family to sample what populations belonging to different age groups may want to see in this year’s official financial plan—all squeezed into the Finance Minister’s annual ‘bahi khata’.
Here are a few inputs shared by one Choksi family based out of Mumbai:
- Senior citizens’ pensions should be tax-free
- Healthcare services should be made more affordable
- Alcohol should be made more expensive
- Medicine should be made cheaper
- Tax-filing process should be simplified further
- More tax relief
- Better research centres for children
- Better job opportunities for the youth
- Parks for physical activities in metros like Mumbai
Fri, January 31, 2025, 23:23 PM IST
Budget 2025 LIVE Updates: India eagerly awaits Finance Minister’s bahi khata. What will it bring for the economy & the common man?
In 2019, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman—India’s first full-time female finance minister—made a statement by carrying a ‘bahi khata’ instead of the traditional briefcase on Budget presentation day. With this gesture, the finance minister broke away from an age-old tradition, where finance ministers would pose outside Parliament with Budget documents in a briefcase—a prop common to numerous historical photographs.
Since then, it has become a symbolic representation of the country’s annual Budget.
A bahi khata is a traditional Indian ledger used for the purpose of accounting and record-keeping. Originally, a bahi khata contained handwritten entries in a distinct ledger format.
The one that the current finance minister, Nirmala Sitharaman, has carried is clad in red cloth.
Fri, January 31, 2025, 23:13 PM IST
Budget 2025 LIVE Updates: FM Nirmala Sitharaman set to deliver her 8th Budget speech at 11 am
Budget 2025 LIVE Update: Economic Survey pegs GDP growth at 6.3-6.8% in FY26
The Economic Survey, tabled in Parliament earlier today, pegs GDP growth for the coming financial year at 6.3-6.8 per cent, with strong fundamentals, calibrated fiscal consolidation and stable private consumption seen improving from an estimated 6.4 per cent rate in the current financial year.
Prepared by a team of economists and statisticians headed by Chief Economic Advisor V Anantha Nageswaran, the Economic Survey serves as a precursor—containing valuable context, statistics and forecasts, among other things—that sets the tone of the Union Budget.
Budget 2025 LIVE Update: Economic Survey pegs GDP growth at 6.3-6.8% in FY26
The Economic Survey, tabled in Parliament earlier today, pegs GDP growth for the coming financial year at 6.3-6.8 per cent, with strong fundamentals, calibrated fiscal consolidation and stable private consumption seen improving from an estimated 6.4 per cent rate in the current financial year.
Prepared by a team of economists and statisticians headed by Chief Economic Advisor V Anantha Nageswaran, the Economic Survey serves as a precursor—containing valuable context, statistics and forecasts, among other things—that sets the tone of the Union Budget.
Budget 2025 LIVE Updates: Take a look at FM Nirmala Sitharaman’s tentative schedule for Feb 1
Here’s a tentative schedule of the Finance Minister’s Budget Day this year:
- Finance Minister will reach the North Block at around 8:40 am
- Photo session with her Budget team at 9 am
- Finance Minister will head to visit President
- Finance Minister will enter Parliament around 10 am
- Budget expected to be approved in Cabinet meeting around 10:20 am
- Finance Minister to deliver Budget speech
- PM Narendra Modi to give his reaction to Budget around 1 pm
- Post-Budget press conference around 3 pm
Fri, January 31, 2025, 22:42 PM IST
Budget 2025 LIVE Update: Budget crew in action! Nirmala Sitharaman seen with her Budget team members
Union Minister Nirmala Sitharaman seen appeared with the Secretaries and the senior officials involved in the Budget-making process today.
Team Budget was giving final touches to the annual financial document at Sitharaman’s office in North Block in the national capital.
Fri, January 31, 2025, 22:33 PM IST
Budget 2025 LIVE Updates: Rationalisation of tax slabs possible?
SBI Research holds the view that a new tax rate of 15 per cent should be applied to individuals earning between Rs 10 lakh and Rs 15 lakh a year, from the current 20 per cent.
Here are four other major changes expected by SBI Research, the research arm of the country’s largest lender State Bank of India:
1. New tax regime for all taxpayers: All taxpayers should be moved to the new tax regime, which will involve phasing out exemptions under the old tax regime. While this move is estimated to result in a nominal revenue loss of Rs 50,000 crore, it is expected to enhance tax compliance, increase disposable income, and boost consumption, according to SBI Research.
2. Flat 15% tax on FD interest: One of the most significant proposals is the introduction of a flat 15 per cent tax on interest earned from fixed deposits (FDs) across all maturities. Currently, FD interest is taxed according to individual income slab rates, ranging from 5 per cent to 30 per cent. Taxing FD interest at a uniform rate of 15 per cent (applicable at the time of withdrawal rather than annually) will align FD taxation with the treatment of equities and mutual funds, simplifying the tax system and encouraging savings though it may result in an estimated revenue loss of Rs 10,408 crore annually.
3. Increase in savings account tax exemption limit: Increasing the tax exemption limit on savings account interest from Rs 10,000 to Rs 20,000 will benefit nearly 99.65 per cent of savings account holders in the country.
5. Enhancement of NPS and medical insurance exemptions: Increasing the National Pension System (NPS) exemption limit from Rs 50,000 to Rs 1 lakh and raising the medical insurance exemption limit from Rs 25,000 to Rs 50,000 will lead to greater financial security for taxpayers.
Read more on income tax expectations and updates
Fri, January 31, 2025, 22:28 PM IST
Budget 2025 LIVE Updates: Can you expect income tax changes in this Budget? Will there be revisions in income tax rates and income tax slabs?
In the Narendra Modi 3.0 government’s first Union Budget, the finance minister made a number of tax-related changes.
A number of tax experts have voiced their thoughts on what the current income tax structure needs, citing the need for a revision of tax slabs to provide relief to taxpayers.
his time around, many experts expect the finance minister to announce income tax rate cuts for taxpayers in the annual income bracket of up to Rs 30 lakh, citing a significantly reduced disposable income that taxpayers belonging to the middle-income category are experiencing.
Some experts say that revisions to tax slabs and deductions under Section 80C have not been updated for many years and are due for revision in line with inflation rates. Some also believe that a standard deduction in proportion to income is the need of the hour, along with higher exemption limits for senior and super senior citizens.
Budget 2025 LIVE Updates: Pre-Budget meetings help in shaping Budget priorities
Her multi-session, multi-pronged pre-Budget consultations started on December 6 and concluded on January 6. During this period, FM Sitharaman chaired a chain of meetings with more than 100 invitees across nine stakeholder groups.
Participants included:
- Experts and representatives from farmer associations and agriculture economists
- Trade unions
- Education & health sector representatives
- MSME representatives
- Trade & services representatives
- Industry representatives
- Financial sector & capital markets representatives
- Infrastructure representatives energy
The Narendra Modi 3.0 government also invited comments and ideas from citizens through its MyGov platform, starting January 8.
Friday January 31, 2025, 22:08 PM IST
Budget 2025 LIVE Updates: FM Nirmala Sitharaman engaged in pre-Budget consultations over a month…
As the country awaits eagerly to find what’s in store for the economy and its people in the form of the coming financial year’s Union Budget, did you know that the Finance Minister engages in a long pre-Budget consultation process before preparing for the much-anticipated annual event? Yes, various stakeholders who contribute to the preparation of the Union Budget during this period include economists, industry representatives, state governments, and other experts.
Fri, January 31, 2025, 21:59 PM IST
Budget 2025 Live Updates, India Union Budget 2025-26: Stakeholders have a long list of expectations…
The Union Budget comes at a time when the economy has hit a seven-quarter low GDP growth rate of 5.4 per cent in July-September, owing largely to sub-par growth in crucial sectors like manufacturing, mining and electricity.
While the economic growth disappointed many economists and analysts, some say that momentum witnessed in sectors like agriculture, construction and services saved the day, saving the overall growth rate from dipping further.
Also, the economy has been waiting for the COVID-era interest rates to ease, as the RBI has been delaying an imminent repo rate cut thanks to fluctuations in inflation.
Fri, January 31, 2025, 21:53 PM IST
Budget 2025 Live Updates: Welcome to the primelookindia.com LIVE blog on Union Budget 2025-26 | Follow this space for the latest announcements
At 11 am on Saturday, February 1, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman is all set to present the Union Budget for 2025-26, which begins on April 1.
This is set to be her eighth Union Budget speech in Parliament.
Will areas like infrastructure, farming, women, jobs and skilling remain high on the Narendra Modi 3.0 government’s priority list?
You will have to wait until the Finance Minister delivers her speech starting at 11 am tomorrow (Saturday, February 1).
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