As Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman prepares to present her eighth budget, Industry leaders have shared their expectations, highlighting the need for reforms across taxation, fiscal policies, and market operations.
Alternative Investment Funds (AIFs) focused on unlisted securities have delivered impressive returns, achieving a pooled internal rate of return (IRR) of 21.5 per cent between fiscal years 2013 and 2024, according to the Crisil-Oister report, 'No ifs about AIFs 2.0'.
India is currently experiencing a cyclical economic downturn, with gross domestic product (GDP) growth projected at 6.1 per cent for both FY25 and FY26, according to a report by Nirmal Bang.
With the Union Budget for FY26 scheduled to be presented on February 1, 2025, a report by Goldman Sachs underlined two key concerns for policymakers, the pace of fiscal consolidation and the government's spending priorities.
The report identifies four factors--wealth effect, incomes, leverage, and fiscal transfers--as key drivers of consumption cycles.
Over the past two decades, these drivers have influenced consumption across distinct phases, including periods of broad-based growth and K-shaped recovery.
Keeping pace with the budgetary allocation, Indian Railways has spent 76 per cent of its budgetary outlay within the first nine months of the current fiscal year 2024-25.
Emphasis on fiscal consolidation, tax system simplification, and investment-driven growth, in the Budget 2025 will lay a solid foundation for sustained economic development in India, asserted global consulting and professional services firm Ernst & Young India.
It may be a subdued growth in the current financial year but the Indian economy is projected to grow by 6.8 per cent in the financial year 2025-26, supported by strong high-frequency indicators, according to a report by Bank of Baroda.
The Indian economy, in real terms, is expected to grow by 6.4 per cent in 2024-25 as compared to the 8.2 per cent growth in 2023-24. It is 20 basis points less than RBI estimates.
India is on the path of fiscal prudence as the government has spent around 52.5 per cent of the budget estimate (BE) of its deficit in the first seven months of FY25, says a report by the Union Bank of India.