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India budget walks tightrope between revenue strain, spending needs

MUMBAI, Feb 1 (Reuters) – India’s federal government kept a tight leash on spending in its annual budget for 2026-27, as income and consumption tax cuts announced in the past year weighed on revenues. The government will target a debt-to-GDP ratio of 55.6% for 2026-27, resulting in a fiscal deficit of 4.3% of GDP, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said on Sunday in a budget that sought to strengthen the manufacturing sector amid a volatile global environment. The modest fiscal consolidation will support economic growth, but hurt bond markets because of large borrowings from the federal government. TAX CUTS PRESSURE REVENUE

STT hike on Futures dampen stock market sentiment; Sensex, Nifty crash nearly 2 pc

Mumbai, Feb 1 (PTI) Benchmark stock indices Sensex and Nifty dived sharply by nearly 2 per cent on Sunday after Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman proposed a hike in the Securities Transaction Tax (STT) on derivatives. Reversing the early gains, the 30-share BSE Sensex plunged sharply by 2,370.36 points or 2.88 per cent to slide below the 80,000-mark at 79,899.42 in afternoon trade as the finance minister announced a hike in STT on futures contracts to 0.05 per cent from the current 0.02 per cent. The barometer settled at 80,722.94, down 1,546.84 points or 1.88 per cent. The 50-share NSE Nifty

‘Seems to have missed the ball’: Tharoor’s cricketing analogy to slam Budget

New Delhi, Feb 1 (PTI) Senior Congress leader Shashi Tharoor on Sunday used a cricketing analogy to express his disappointment with the Union Budget, saying Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman “seems to have missed the ball”. In an interview with PTI at the news agency’s headquarters, Tharoor said Sitharaman’s Budget speech seemed to have “lots of subheadings but very few specifics”, and was “completely short” of an overall vision. As a Kerala MP, Tharoor said, he had nothing to be happy about in this Budget. Tharoor asserted that the biggest unanswered question remains jobs, noting that there was little in the

Bengal not mentioned in Budget, govt sees us as ‘Bangladeshis’: Abhishek Banerjee

New Delhi, Feb 1 (PTI) Trinamool Congress National General Secretary Abhishek Banerjee on Sunday accused the Centre of branding people of West Bengal as “Bangladeshis” and lambasted the finance minister for not mentioning the state in her Budget speech. Asked about the Budget, Banerjee said it has no solutions for any community, and called it a “faceless, baseless and visionless Budget”. “The Budget speech was 85 minutes long — 5,100 seconds — Bengal was not even mentioned. Forget Bengal; farmer, youth… there was nothing concrete for anyone. “They talk about AI, Skill India, technological advancement; how would youth get employment,

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