Navigating Fiscal Challenges: India's Budget 2025

India's upcoming budget aims to ease the middle-class tax burden and promote economic growth while adhering to fiscal responsibilities. With challenges like geopolitical uncertainties and slowing growth, measures including tax rationalization, investment in infrastructure, and incentives for domestic manufacturing are anticipated to stimulate demand and employment.

India's Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman is poised to deliver a pivotal budget aimed at alleviating the financial strain on the country's middle class. Amid escalating prices and stagnant wage growth, changes in income tax rates are anticipated as part of a broader strategy to stimulate domestic consumption.

As the fiscal year kicks off on April 1, the government's priorities focus on boosting economic growth and adhering to fiscal adequacy. Experts project initiatives such as tax rationalization, increased investment in infrastructure, expanded production-linked incentives, and measures to promote manufacturing.

The budget lands in a complex global context, overshadowed by geopolitical tensions and economic forecasts trailing four-year lows. The government's strategy encompasses tariff rationalization, skill development, and bolstered domestic production to maintain growth momentum while adapting to the global economic shifts.

(With inputs from agencies.)