Budget 2025 expectations: Maintain thrust on investments & reforms, says FICCI

Budget 2025 expectations: Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman’s Union Budget 2025 should focus on maintaining a thrust on investments and implementing next generation reforms, according to FICCI. In its list of pre-Budget 2025 recommendations for FM Nirmala Sitharaman, FICCI says that capex push and ease of doing business are key to India’s economic growth.

“The Indian economy has exhibited resilience, despite persisting downside risks. Economic Survey 2023-24 released in July 2024 projected India to grow at 6.5-7.0 per cent in fiscal 2024-25 – which though a moderation from 8.2 percent growth reported in 2023-24 is encouraging given the global economic environment,” FICCI notes.

Union Budget 2024-25 maintained a strong commitment towards balancing various objectives for achieving the vision of Viksit Bharat, it said.

Below are some recommendations by FICCI for Union Budget 2025-26:

1. Maintain thrust on investments: The thrust laid by the government on capex over the last few years aided recovery and ensured support to the growth momentum. Given the uncertainty amidst persisting global headwinds, the government's thrust on public capex on physical, social and digital infrastructure will be important to maintain the growth momentum.

Also See: Budget 2025

The capital outlay in Union Budget 2024-25 was budgeted at Rs 11.11 lakh crore. The quality of the fisc has improved over time with revenue expenditure being contained and productive capital expenditure being prioritized. We propose the government to consider increasing capex in FY26 by 15 percent over 2024-25.

2. Implement next generation reforms in factor market – Create inter-state institutional platforms: We complement the government for maintaining continuity on reforms pertaining to both ease of doing business and cost of doing business. We are encouraged by the set of next generation reforms proposed in the Union Budget 2024-25.

Many of the next generation reforms lie in the state & concurrent domains and require consensus building to take them forward. Inter-state institutional platforms on the lines of the GST Council can be created – especially for reforms in areas of land, labor and power.

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