Finance minister Sitharaman to begin pre-Budget consultation from Friday

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman will start pre-Budget consultations with various stakeholders beginning Friday as part of Budget making exercise.

The first meeting as part of this series will be held with eminent economists on December 6.

Sitharaman, who will chair these meetings, will seek their inputs regarding upcoming Budget amid seven-quarter low GDP print of 5.4 per cent in second quarter of the current financial year.

It will be followed by a meeting with farmer associations and agriculture economists and stakeholders in MSME sector on December 7, sources said.

Union Budget 2025-26 is likely to be tabled in Parliament on February 1.

This would be the eighth straight Budget of Sitharaman and second full budget of the Modi 3.0 government, which will give policy direction for achieving the goal of Viksit Bharat (developed India) by 2047.

The pre-Budget consultations will end on December 30 with consultations with captains of Indian industry and players in the social sector, especially education and health.

Besides the finance minister, Minister of State for Finance Pankaj Chaudhary; Finance Secretary and DIPAM Secretary Tuhin Kanta Pandey; Economic Affairs Secretary Ajay Seth; Revenue Secretary Sanjay Malhotra; and Financial Services Secretary M Nagaraju are expected to be present.

The Budget for the current fiscal had projected a nominal GDP growth of 10.5 per cent, while fiscal deficit was pegged at 4.9 per cent of the gross domestic product (GDP).

Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led government in 2017 scrapped a colonial-era tradition of presenting the Budget at the end of February. Erstwhile finance minister Arun Jaitley had for the first time presented the annual accounts on February 1, 2017.

With the rescheduled Budget date, ministries are now allocated their budgeted funds from the start of the financial year beginning April. This gives government departments more leeway to spend as well as allow companies time to adapt to business and taxation plans.