BUDGET 2026: For You & Me

BY APURVA RAI

THE

 Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman presented the 2026- 27 budget for the 9th consecutive time on Sunday, February 1, 2026. This is the first time that the budget has been presented on Sunday, a weekly holiday.

The Finance Minister presented a ₹53.5 lakh crore budget, outlining a long-term roadmap to strengthen the country’s economy amid global uncertainties. Marching towards the objective of Viksit Bharat (Developed India) the budget targets a sustained high growth rate of approximately seven per cent. 

The finance minister said that the Budget 2026 is guided by a sense of Kartavya (duty).

• The FIRST Kartavya is to prioritise the poor, underprivileged and disadvantaged.
• The SECOND Kartavya is to accelerate economic growth and job creation.
• The THIRD Kartavya is to strengthen the economic foundations for future.

The Union Budget is quite complicated and difficult to understand for the common people. We have listed major points that concern us and are not very difficult to understand.

The focal point of the Budget is what becomes cheaper and what becomes costlier. To begin with, let us give a list of what is cheaper and what is costlier now.

CHEAPER

• Leather products
• Mobile phones and EV batteries
• Microwave Oven
• 17 cancer medicines
• Solar panels

COSTLIER

• Alcohol

SELF RELIANCE 

Launching India Semiconductor Mission (ISM) 2.0 and Biopharma SHAKTI to reduce critical import dependencies.

• MSME: A new three-pronged strategy to help small businesses grow as 'Champions' through dedicated equity and liquidity support.
• Energy: A ₹20,000 crore outlay for Carbon Capture Utilisation & Storage (CCUS). This will promote decarbonisation (emission reduction) in the country.  
• Tax breaks to the nuclear power project extended until 2035.
• SHE Marts: With the aim of giving more to women, particularly from rural areas, the finance minister proposed to set up SHE Marts. The Self Help Entrepreneur (SHE) Marts would be community-owned retail outlets within cluster-level federations. The move would help rural women becoming decision-makers and stakeholders in business and supply chain. The retail platform would promote women-made products. 
• Inland Waterways: The Budget 26 proposes to operationalise 20 new National Waterways over the next five years. Besides this, coastal cargo would also be encouraged. Sitharaman also said the ship repair ecosystem would be set up in Varanasi and Patna. 
• Rare Earth Corridors: Proposal to develop rare-earth corridors and ensure India’s supplies of rare-earth magnets. For this purpose, mineral-rich states of Odisha, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu will get special support from the government. This will help India to reduce dependence on China for rare-earth minerals. 
• Establishing 3 Dedicated Chemical Parks to enhance domestic production.
• Odisha, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Kerala to get dedicated rare earth corridors to promote research and mining.
• Electronics outlay increased to 40,000 crores.
• Bio-pharma Hub: Bio Pharma Shakti to be launched with dedicated allotment of Rs 10,000 crore over five years.

 TAX RELIEF

• Tax Collected at Source (TCS) for overseas education and medical treatment under LRS slashed from 5% to 2%.
• TCS on overseas tour packages reduced to 2% without any amount threshold. Earlier, it was 5%.
• Interest awarded by motor accident claim tribunals is now exempt fro
• Income Tax.
• Basic Customs Duty (BCD) exempted for 17 cancer drugs.
• A one-time 6-month foreign asset disclosure scheme introduced for small taxpayers.
• Decriminalisation of certain TDS payment delays and non-production of books.
• Duty-free allowance: Indians returning from overseas travel excluding neighbouring countries such as Nepal, Bhutan and Myanmar can now bring in goods worth up to Rs 75,000 duty-free. Till now this was up to Rs 50,000.
• However, there is no increase in the allowance for liquor, capped at 2 litres per passenger.
• Customs Duty: The budget has proposed to bring down customs duty on personal imports to 10%. This will provide direct benefit to the consumers. This means drop in the landed cost of everything— from electronics to fashion— that customers import privately. Effective from April 1, this would be applicable on all dutiable goods imported for personal use, except cars, alcoholic beverages, tobacco products, printed books and items that need an import licence.

DEFENCE

Defence allocation in Budget 26 receives a major boost, highlighting the government’s commitment to the modernisation of armed forces, in the post-Operation Sindoor environment. The defence outlay for 2026– 27 stands at  Rs 7,84,678 crore, compared with Rs 6,81,210 crore in the previous financial year.

The finance minister announced customs duty relief to support the defence aerospace ecosystem. She proposed exempting basic customs duty on components and parts required for the manufacture of civilian, training and other aircraft, and on raw materials imported for maintenance, repair or overhaul activities by defence sector units.

TOURISM 

• Pilot scheme to upskill 10,000 tour guides across 20 destinations as part of Skill Development.   
• Plan to develop 15 archaeological sites into vibrant, experiential cultural destinations.
• Growth plans for Tier-II, Tier-III, and temple towns through the ‘City Economic Regions’.
• Buddha Circuit to be developed in North East India to preserve temples and monasteries.
• Buddhist sites in Sarnath, Kushinagar and Kapilvastu to be developed further. Plan to deploy 4,000 e-buses for easier mobility. 
• Mountain Trail: Mountains in India have plenty to offer to the tourists, both domestic and international. The Budget proposes to develop mountain trails in Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Jammu Kashmir, Rakku Valley (Andhra Pradesh) in the Eastern Ghats and Podhigai Malai (Tamil Nadu- Kerala) in the Western Ghats.
• Turtle Trails: The Budget proposes to develop ‘Turtle Trails’ to promote eco-tourism and protect Olive Ridley turtle nesting sites along the coasts of Odisha, Karnataka and Kerala.
• Bird watching: The Budget plans to protect wetlands, sanctuaries and eco-parks developed or upgraded by the government. The government is developing dedicated bird-watching trails around Pulicat Lake, located on the border of Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu.

MEDICAL TOURISM

• Five regional medical hubs to come up in different states in collaboration with the private sector. These hubs will function as integrated healthcare complexes, bringing together medical, educational and research facilities under one ecosystem.
• Three new All India Institutes of Ayurveda to be established to strengthen research and academic capacity in the field.
• Training 1.5 lakh multiskilled caregivers
• New Emergency Trauma Centres to come up in every district hospital.

EDUCATION

Education is the key to development for any country. The Budget 2026-27 understands what education means for a society that is growing fast and making a global impact. The Finance Minister has raised the allocation by over eight per cent. The Ministry of Education has been allocated Rs 1.39 lakh crore for FY 2026- 27, an increase of 8.27 per cent from Rs 1.28 lakh crore in the previous financial year.

Total fund allocation to the education sector stands at nearly 2.6 per cent of the total estimated expenditure of Rs 53.5 lakh crore for FY27. This is the highest ever allocation to the education sector, thus, clearly indicating the government's priority.

• Building 5 University Townships.
• Ensuring a girls' hostel in STEM institutions in every district.
• New National Institute of Design (NID) to be set up through the Challenge route in the eastern region of the country.
• Setting up AVGC Content Creator Labs in 15,000 secondary schools and 500 colleges.
• National Institute of Hospitality to be developed. This will work as a link between academia, government and industry. 

AGRICULTURE 

• Coconut Promotion Scheme to be launched to increase productivity of the crop. Sitharaman said about 30 million people, including nearly 10 million farmers, depend on coconuts for their livelihood, with India being the world's largest producer. 
• Cashew & cocoa: Dedicated programme to make the country self-reliant in their production and processing. The target is to transform them into premium global brands by 2030.
• Sandalwood cultivation and post-harvest processing are proposed to restore the glory of the Indian sandalwood ecosystem.
• For hilly regions, a dedicated program will support reviving old orchards and expansion of high-density cultivation of walnuts, almonds and pine nuts.
• Animal Husbandry: Giving a boost to the agricultural economy, the finance minister announced a series of schemes to strengthen the fisheries and animal husbandry sectors. The Budget makes provision for the establishment of private veterinary and para-veterinary colleges, animal hospitals, diagnostic laboratories and breeding facilities. 
• Fisheries:The government will undertake integrated development of 500 reservoirs and Amrit Sarovars and strengthen the value chain in coastal areas.

RAILWAY BUDGET

THE finance minister has allotted the highest-ever budgetary outlay in the Union Budget 2026-27 of Rs 2,78,030 crore to the Ministry of Railways. The ministry also received a record capital expenditure (capex) of Rs 2,93,030 crore in the Union Budget 2026–27. 

HIGH SPEED RAIL CORRIDORS

• Two new bullet train projects have been sanctioned in the Budget 2026-27. These are: Delhi-Varanasi and Varanasi-Siliguri. 

With this, the travel time from Delhi to Varanasi would be reduced to 3 hours and 50 minutes, while the Varanasi–Siliguri journey via Patna would take around 2 hours and 55 minutes. This will also create a new economic corridor stretching from Delhi through Uttar Pradesh and Bihar to West Bengal.

• Other routes that have been sanctioned are: Mumbai-Pune, Pune-Hyderabad, Hyderabad-Bangalore, Hyderabad-Chennai and Chennai-Bangalore.

According to the railway minister Chennai, Bengaluru and Hyderabad will form a ‘South High-Speed Triangle’. The minister called it as a ‘South High-Speed Diamond’. With the launching of these trains, the travel time between Chennai and Bengaluru would be cut to just 1 hour and 13 minutes, Bengaluru-Hyderabad journey would take around 2 hours and travel time between Chennai and Hyderabad would be reduced to about 2 hours and 55 minutes. 

 According to the Rail Budget,    the travel time between Mumbai and Pune would be reduced to just 48 minutes, while the Pune-Hyderabad journey would take around 1 hour and 55 minutes.

•  Train Speed: According to the Railway Minister the high speed trains will be running at a speed of 300 to 350 kmph.

 

DEVELOPMENT OF RAILWAY STATIONS IN DELHI

The Railway Budget also plans to develop 13 railway stations in Delhi under the ‘Amrit Station Scheme’. A sum of Rs 5,887 crore would be spent for the completion of this project. The stations to be developed are: Adarshnagar Delhi, Anand Vihar, Bijwasan, Delhi, Delhi Cantt., Delhi Sarai Rohilla, Delhi Shahadra, Hazrat Nizamuddin, Narela, New Delhi, Sabzi Mandi, Safdarjung and Tilak Bridge.

DEDICATED FREIGHT CORRIDOR

The Budget proposes a new Dedicated Freight Corridor (DFC) linking Dankuni in West Bengal with Surat in Gujarat. This will ease cargo movement and lead to the growth of business. This corridor will connect six states: West Bengal, Odisha, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and Gujarat.

The Dankuni- Surat Freight Corridor will also link the Western Dedicated Freight Corridor (WDFC) and the Eastern Dedicated Freight Corridor (EDFC).

The DFC project is being executed by Dedicated Freight Corridor Corporation of India Limited (DFCCIL) under the Ministry of Railways.

UTTAR PRADESH GETS BIGGER SHARE

The Ministry of Railways has allocated a budgetary fund of Rs 20,012 crore for the development of rail infrastructure in Uttar Pradesh for the financial year 2026-27. Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said, “Once again, Uttar Pradesh has received a record budget allocation”.