Sky-High Hopes: FM Nirmala Sitharaman To Present Union Budget 2025 Today

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman is all set to present the Union Budget 2025 on February 1, Saturday. The budget will be presented at 11 am in the Lok Sabha. This marks Nirmala Sitharaman’s record eighth consecutive budget presentation.

While the salaried employees are expecting relief in income taxes, the middle class and poor, as claimed by the government, hope for reforms in their favour. The expectations for tax cuts are sky-high, particularly for the lower middle class, after Prime Minister Narendra Modi mentioned the Goddess of Wealth praying to uplift the poor and middle class.

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Ahead of the budget, the finance minister tabled the economic survey on Friday, January 31, kickstarting the budget session. The survey provided insights into the performance of the country’s economy, analyzed challenges, and recommended reforms.

In synch with the Economic Survey, the Centre is expected to take effective measures aimed at drastic changes focusing on higher allocation to boost infrastructure, ease of doing business, investment-friendly environments, and policies for accelerating artificial intelligence (AI) models, which has been a hot topic of discussion across the world since China challenged the US monopoly in the field with its flagship DeepSeek.

Notably, the budget is presented at a time of geopolitical uncertainties and an economic growth rate slowdown, around a four-year low. Moreover, new US President Donald Trump’s tariff threat against India and other nations adds further complications to the country’s future.

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Amit Sharma, MD & CEO of TATA Consulting Engineers (TCE), said that the budget is a “key opportunity” to advance India’s infrastructure, energy transition, and technological innovation.

As suggested in the Economic Survey, the minister may announce financial inclusion for rural households and small businesses as a priority area.