Union Budget 2026

[vivekdhyani1]

Union Cabinet approves Union Budget 2026-27 shortly before Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman presented her ninth consecutive Budget in Parliament. It is the first time in India's fiscal history that the budget is being presented on a Sunday.According to the Economic Survey 2026 tabled on Thursday, India's economy is projected to grow 7.4 per cent in financial year 2026 (FY26) and 6.8-7.2 per cent in FY27.

Here are some key details of Budget :

₹40,000 Cr Outlay For Electronics Component Mfg
Dedicated Rare Earth mining Corridor for TN , Kerla , AP, Odisha
₹10,000 Cr bio  pharma strategy outlay
₹10,000 crore SME growth fund
Public capex in FY26-27 to Rs 12.2 Lk cr vs Vs Rs 10 Lk Cr In FY25-26
National Fibre Scheme under textile sector, moot textile expansion plan via capital support for machinery
7 new high speed rail corridors :
1. Mumbai-Pune
2. Pune - Hyderabad
3. Hyderabad - Bengaluru
4. Hyderabad - Chennai
5. Chennai - Bengaluru
6. Delhi -  Varanasi
7. Varanasi - Siliguri
20 New Waterways over next 5 yrs ,  incentivise indigenised Sea Planes mfg
Recycle PSU Real Estate assets via special REITs
Propose to support the Indian Institute of Creative Tech, to set up Content Creator Labs in 15,000 schools and 5,000 colleges
Propose upping the individual invest limit to 10% from 5% for Persons Resident Outside India , overall limit hike to 24% from 10%
Govt has accepted 16th Finance Commission recos to retain the share of devolution at 41% , Allocating Rs 1.4 lk cr for states for FY27 as Finance Commission grants, including rural & urban local bodies & disaster mgmt grants
Debt-to-GDP estimated at 55% of GDP, target 50% by 2030
FY26 Fiscal Deficit Seen At 4.4% Of GDP, FY27 Fiscal Deficit At 4.3% Of GDP
FY27 net market borrowing at Rs 11.7 lk cr , Net market borrowings at Rs 11.7 lakh crore (in-line) , Gross Market Borrowing at Rs 17.2 lakh crore (FY27 Est at Rs 16.07 Lk cr)
TCS Rates reduced on foreign travel and foreign education to 2%
Carbon Capture Storage and Utilisation technology will receive R&D boost - 20,000 Crore in next 5 years
All Indian Districts to get 1 Girls Hostel for Women Safety and allow girls to study and work freely away from home
15 Archeological Sites to be developed with focus on Indus Valley Sites
Minor innocent/Technical Errors in tax declaration granted immunity from prosecution, can get away with small fine
Dividend Income to get tax exemption under New Tax Regime - limit applies
Foreign investors doing FDI in Indian Data Centres get Tax Holiday till 2027
NRIs supplying capital goods get 5 Year Income Tax Exemption
Futures and Options Trading to get expensive with increased STT Tax
Basic Customs Duty exempted on 17 Cancer Drugs and Medicines and 7 Rare Diseases
Capital goods used for Lithium Ion and Battery storage gets Custom Duty Relief
Custom Duty Exemption for Nuclear Power Projects extended till 2035
Cloud Services from India gets Tax Holiday
Basic Custom Duty relaxed on manufacturing of Civilian Training Aircraft
Fish caught by Indian Vessel in Exclusive Economic Zone and International Water made Tax Free
States To Get Rs 1.4 lakh Crore As Finance Commission Grants
Rate of final tax to be reduced to 14% from current Minimum Alternate Tax (MAT) rate of 15%

Overall good budget , now time to execute it properly .. only negative markets seem to be reacting to is the STT hike, which also signals government’s intent to discourage excessive retail participation in F&O.

I guess not , Sensex is down 1100+ points & Nifty is down 350+ points 

[IIrik11]

this is the only thing i care about n maybe some tax crypto gurus can shed light on what this means:

Budget 2026 has proposed strict penalty provisions for crypto exchanges towards non-compliance in reporting crypto-assets under Section 509 of the Income Tax Act, 2025.

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, while delivering her budget speech, said, “To ensure compliance with the provisions of Section 509 of the Income-tax Act, 2025 and create a deterrence for non-furnishing of statement or for furnishing inaccurate information in respect of crypto assets in such statement, it is proposed to introduce a penalty provision.”

The proposed Act introduces a penalty of Rs 200 per day for failure to furnish the required statement and Rs 50,000 for providing inaccurate information in a statement of transaction of crypto assets.

The provisions under Section 509 of the Income Tax Act, 2025, will come into force from April 1, 2026.

source: https://www.moneycontrol.com/budget/budget-2026-imposes-penalties-for-non-reporting-of-crypto-assets-under-the-income-tax-act-2025-article-13803465.html

now, does this mean, that if someone bought/sold crypto before april 1 2026 will have to report them in next tax filing

if they haven't ie, n if so how long back could this go?

or this only applies to crypto trades done after april 1 2026? 

[Bitcoin Smith]

I didn't have the time to go through the complete list and also I am waiting for the detailed review from the economic expert who I follow everyday and see if this budget has anything to offer for the major people.

Initial impressions from news channels were, this is something big/revolutionary budget, not sure why they said but that's what they used to while telecasting the news.

[vivekdhyani1]

^^ nothing much revolutionary as such but yeah they have increased defense budget by around $10 billion & majority increment is in capex so they did good there.i like them buliding seperate rare earth corridor for mineral rich state & dedicated new freight corridor.7 new HSR is coming but i'll only belevieve that after seeing tender as their was a simler announcement last yr too.sepreate funding for bio pharma & ISM basically starting ISM 2.0.negative is increased tax on future & option trading.

& most eye opening part (Govt To Setup Content Creator Labs ) , are we getting PradhanMantri Reel bano Yojna 

 

[JSRAW]

Union Cabinet approves Union Budget 2026-27 shortly before Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman presented her ninth consecutive Budget in Parliament. It is the first time in India's fiscal history that the budget is being presented on a Sunday.According to the Economic Survey 2026 tabled on Thursday, India's economy is projected to grow 7.4 per cent in financial year 2026 (FY26) and 6.8-7.2 per cent in FY27.

Here are some key details of Budget :

₹40,000 Cr Outlay For Electronics Component Mfg
Dedicated Rare Earth mining Corridor for TN , Kerla , AP, Odisha
₹10,000 Cr bio  pharma strategy outlay
₹10,000 crore SME growth fund
Public capex in FY26-27 to Rs 12.2 Lk cr vs Vs Rs 10 Lk Cr In FY25-26
National Fibre Scheme under textile sector, moot textile expansion plan via capital support for machinery
7 new high speed rail corridors :
1. Mumbai-Pune
2. Pune - Hyderabad
3. Hyderabad - Bengaluru
4. Hyderabad - Chennai
5. Chennai - Bengaluru
6. Delhi -  Varanasi
7. Varanasi - Siliguri
20 New Waterways over next 5 yrs ,  incentivise indigenised Sea Planes mfg
Recycle PSU Real Estate assets via special REITs
Propose to support the Indian Institute of Creative Tech, to set up Content Creator Labs in 15,000 schools and 5,000 colleges
Propose upping the individual invest limit to 10% from 5% for Persons Resident Outside India , overall limit hike to 24% from 10%
Govt has accepted 16th Finance Commission recos to retain the share of devolution at 41% , Allocating Rs 1.4 lk cr for states for FY27 as Finance Commission grants, including rural & urban local bodies & disaster mgmt grants
Debt-to-GDP estimated at 55% of GDP, target 50% by 2030
FY26 Fiscal Deficit Seen At 4.4% Of GDP, FY27 Fiscal Deficit At 4.3% Of GDP
FY27 net market borrowing at Rs 11.7 lk cr , Net market borrowings at Rs 11.7 lakh crore (in-line) , Gross Market Borrowing at Rs 17.2 lakh crore (FY27 Est at Rs 16.07 Lk cr)
TCS Rates reduced on foreign travel and foreign education to 2%
Carbon Capture Storage and Utilisation technology will receive R&D boost - 20,000 Crore in next 5 years
All Indian Districts to get 1 Girls Hostel for Women Safety and allow girls to study and work freely away from home
15 Archeological Sites to be developed with focus on Indus Valley Sites
Minor innocent/Technical Errors in tax declaration granted immunity from prosecution, can get away with small fine
Dividend Income to get tax exemption under New Tax Regime - limit applies
Foreign investors doing FDI in Indian Data Centres get Tax Holiday till 2027
NRIs supplying capital goods get 5 Year Income Tax Exemption
Futures and Options Trading to get expensive with increased STT Tax
Basic Customs Duty exempted on 17 Cancer Drugs and Medicines and 7 Rare Diseases
Capital goods used for Lithium Ion and Battery storage gets Custom Duty Relief
Custom Duty Exemption for Nuclear Power Projects extended till 2035
Cloud Services from India gets Tax Holiday
Basic Custom Duty relaxed on manufacturing of Civilian Training Aircraft
Fish caught by Indian Vessel in Exclusive Economic Zone and International Water made Tax Free
States To Get Rs 1.4 lakh Crore As Finance Commission Grants
Rate of final tax to be reduced to 14% from current Minimum Alternate Tax (MAT) rate of 15%

Overall good budget , now time to execute it properly .. only negative markets seem to be reacting to is the STT hike, which also signals government’s intent to discourage excessive retail participation in F&O.

I guess not , Sensex is down 1100+ points & Nifty is down 350+ points 

- too good for electronics, already doing fair amount of good job and it'll only help us to move up into value chain. In short pro manufacturing and no scredriving.
- we are far behind in mining and processing so glad that they are atleast thinking about this sector.
- didn't get pharma strategy, is it related to APIs? Good, if it is as we are dependent on China atm.
- SME growth fund sounds meh, first they should speed up the process of clearing the payment to SMEs.
- textile parks are much needed for labour intensive sector, hopefully they are thinking the same for shoes etc and proposing PLIs. With EU and other FTA ( include possible usa's fta as well) we have potential to grab 80-100 billion market worldwide. Additionally, it'll do wonders for our so called bimaru states if industries goes there.
- i am usually pumped up for every train related thingy, massive fan of metro system of Delhi and love the RRTS so nothing much to criticize except petty politics ( UBT's like drama in Ahmedabad -mumbai bullet train), hoping for some improvement in this case.

PS : using phone so didn't read full post lol

[pkerr2134]

if they haven't ie, n if so how long back could this go?

or this only applies to crypto trades done after april 1 2026? 

I had the same question and started digging into the information available so far. From what it looks like, the provisions of Section 509 are aimed primarily at exchanges rather than end users, meaning older transactions should still fall under the rules that applied before this provision. If anyone has found information that says otherwise, please share — I might be missing something.

[vivekdhyani1]

- too good for electronics, already doing fair amount of good job and it'll only help us to move up into value chain. In short pro manufacturing and no scredriving.
- we are far behind in mining and processing so glad that they are atleast thinking about this sector.
- didn't get pharma strategy, is it related to APIs? Good, if it is as we are dependent on China atm.
- SME growth fund sounds meh, first they should speed up the process of clearing the payment to SMEs.
- textile parks are much needed for labour intensive sector, hopefully they are thinking the same for shoes etc and proposing PLIs. With EU and other FTA ( include possible usa's fta as well) we have potential to grab 80-100 billion market worldwide. Additionally, it'll do wonders for our so called bimaru states if industries goes there.
- i am usually pumped up for every train related thingy, massive fan of metro system of Delhi and love the RRTS so nothing much to criticize except petty politics ( UBT's like drama in Ahmedabad -mumbai bullet train), hoping for some improvement in this case.

PS : using phone so didn't read full post lol

  you got most of the good parts , also there is a PradhanMantri Reel bano Yojna coming since Govt To Setup Content Creator Labs !! jokes aside

We have increased our Defence Budget by 15% to ₹7.85 lakh crores ($85 Billion) with the CapEx outlay increased by 21% to ₹2.19 lakh crores ($23 Billion) but it still hovering  around 1.9 % of GDP.it should have crossed $100 billion this yr.

[JSRAW]

- too good for electronics, already doing fair amount of good job and it'll only help us to move up into value chain. In short pro manufacturing and no scredriving.
- we are far behind in mining and processing so glad that they are atleast thinking about this sector.
- didn't get pharma strategy, is it related to APIs? Good, if it is as we are dependent on China atm.
- SME growth fund sounds meh, first they should speed up the process of clearing the payment to SMEs.
- textile parks are much needed for labour intensive sector, hopefully they are thinking the same for shoes etc and proposing PLIs. With EU and other FTA ( include possible usa's fta as well) we have potential to grab 80-100 billion market worldwide. Additionally, it'll do wonders for our so called bimaru states if industries goes there.
- i am usually pumped up for every train related thingy, massive fan of metro system of Delhi and love the RRTS so nothing much to criticize except petty politics ( UBT's like drama in Ahmedabad -mumbai bullet train), hoping for some improvement in this case.

PS : using phone so didn't read full post lol

  you got most of the good parts , also there is a PradhanMantri Reel bano Yojna coming since Govt To Setup Content Creator Labs !! jokes aside

We have increased our Defence Budget by 15% to ₹7.85 lakh crores ($85 Billion) with the CapEx outlay increased by 21% to ₹2.19 lakh crores ($23 Billion) but it still hovering  around 1.9 % of GDP.it should have crossed $100 billion this yr.

From natsec POV, this content labs thingy could be useful, given gov and security establishment took right lessons. We fucked up many issues since CAA due to poor messaging as we suck at propaganda and info war. I am just hoping this new venture is related to security etc.. tourism PR also need some support. Additionally we ( wishful thinking) need program like "China's genius plan" for selected 10s of thousands kids based on purely merits.

We are doing alright job in capex for quite sometime and considering the geopolitics, defence budget will only increase and range of 2-2.5% should be alright for us.Also, this Increase in defence is reactive to last conflict, it's good that they increased the budget but it should be a priority even in peace time. In peace time they just focus on pensions/salaries (still good chunk will go there) and forget about procurement, especially desi equipments.