Will achieve 56.1% debt-to-GDP ratio in FY26: FM Nirmala Sitharaman

The finance minister also assured that there was no shortage of fertiliser in the country, whether imported or domestically produced, and there was enough buffer available for the upcoming rabi season

India would achieve a debt-to-GDP (gross domestic product) ratio of 56.1 per cent by the end of 2025-26 (FY26), Finance Minister (FM) Nirmala Sitharaman told Parliament on Monday, adding that rising debt-to-GSDP ratio of states was, however, a cause for concern.

 

Addressing the discussion on the supplementary demand for grants, the FM said India has transitioned from external vulnerability to external resilience. She said with strict monitoring and gradual fiscal consolidation, the government has managed to bring down the debt-to-GDP levels from the highs reached during Covid as a result of high borrowings. The Lok Sabha approved and passed the supplementary demand for grants for net additional spending of ₹41,455 crore in FY26, which includes over ₹18,000 crore expenditure towards fertiliser subsidy.

 

“The economy today has actually moved from fragility to a level of fortitude. The import cover has also strengthened. In 2013, we had foreign exchange reserve only to cover seven months of imports. Today, it has moved to 11.4 months as of June 2025,” Sitharaman said.

 

The FM also assured that there was no shortage of fertiliser in the country, whether it was imported or domestically produced, and there was enough buffer available for the upcoming rabi season.

 

“The Centre has supplied fertilisers to every state, and the supplies are monitored in real time,” she said.

 

Sitharaman added that by carefully managing imports, urea stock increased from 48.64 lakh tonnes as of October 1, 2025, to 68.85 lakh tonnes by October 31, 2025.

 

Referring to US President Donald Trump’s comment that India was a dead economy, the FM said: “Somebody said something somewhere, however important that somebody is, we should not depend on that, but rely on data available within the country, and also data coming from elsewhere.”

 

She said if India were a dead economy then it would not be the fastest-growing major country in the world, which has received ratings upgrades by several agencies.

 

Sitharaman highlighted that “Make in India” had now become make for India, with the country emerging as a net exporter in sectors such as electronics, pharmaceutical engineering, goods, and defence.

 

Stressing that growth in the last one decade had become quite broad-based, the FM said that the bottom 40 per cent of the population is acquiring wealth and assets at a significantly faster rate than the top 20 per cent.

 

“Inequality in asset ownership has massively declined, particularly in urban areas where the disparity for key assets like motor vehicles and refrigerators has shrunk,” she said.

 

To say that the International Monetary Fund (IMF) had downgraded the Indian economy was misleading since they talked about revising the base year for GDP calculations, which would be done by the statistics ministry in January 2026, the FM added.