Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman will present the union budget 2025 on Saturday, February 1. This will be the second budget of the Modi 3.0 government. With this, Sitharaman will become the country’s first Finance Minister to present the Union Budget for the 8th consecutive time. There are widespread debate on what will the budget offer. In an exclusive interview with News24, former Finance Secretary of India, Subhash Chandra Garg lists out key expectations from the upcoming budget.

Budget 2025: Key Expectations

Given below are the expectations of Garg from the upcoming budget.

• Government’s budget is expected to rise to Rs 52-53 trillion this year.
• Capital expenditure will increase to approximately Rs 12 lakh crores.
• Interest expenditure is projected to rise significantly to Rs 30 lakh crores.
• The government may introduce something in the PM Kisan scheme or launch new initiatives for women.
• The government should prioritize reducing the fiscal deficit to 4.5% next year. It should also present a roadmap to achieve 3% by 2029-30.
• On the expenditure side, the priority should be to optimize capital expenditure by allocating funds to productive and high-impact projects, such as key railway lines and public goods, while avoiding unnecessary freebies and spreading resources too thin.
• On the revenue front, reviving the disinvestment and privatization program should be the top priority.
• To boost revenue, the government should identify five or six companies for privatization and several others for disinvestment, aiming to raise Rs 1.5 to 2 lakh crores in the next year.
• The old tax scheme’s exemption threshold of Rs 2.5 lakh, unchanged for 10 years. This should be raised to Rs 5 lakhs.
• The maximum income tax rate of 30% should kick in from the income of Rs 25 lakhs.
• The FM should consider merging the two existing tax systems into a single, unified system.
• Gold prices may shoot up to Rs 1 lakh per 10 grams in very less time if the government increases the custom duty.