Union Budget 2025: Live Coverage

New tax slabs proposed in Union Budget 2025-26

The Union Budget 2025-26 proposes new direct tax slabs and rates under the new income tax regime so that no income tax is needed to be paid for total income upto ₹ 12 Lakh per annum, i.e. average income of Rs 1 Lakh per month, other than special rate income such as Capital Gain. Salaried individuals earning upto ₹ 12.75 Lakh per annum will pay NIL tax, due to standard deduction of ₹ 75,000. Towards the new tax structure and other direct tax proposals, Government is set to lose revenue of about ₹ 1 lakh crore.

FM highlights revised estimates of total receipts & net tax receipts

The Minister said that the Revised Estimate of the total receipts other than borrowings is ₹31.47 lakh crore, of which the net tax receipts are ₹25.57 lakh crore. She added that the Revised Estimate of the total expenditure is ₹47.16 lakh crore, of which the capital expenditure is about ₹10.18 lakh crore.

For FY 2025-26, the Union Finance Minister stated that the total receipts other than borrowings and the total expenditure are estimated at ₹34.96 lakh crore and ₹50.65 lakh crore respectively. The net tax receipts are estimated at ₹28.37 lakh crore.

Govt proses to raise FDI limit for insurance to 100 per cent

The government proposed to raise the Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) limit for the insurance from 74 to 100 per cent, to be available for those companies that invest the entire premium in India.

Govt announces support to develop domestic manufacturing capacities

The Finance Minister mentioned that support will be provided to develop domestic manufacturing capacities for our economy’s integration with global supply chains. She also announced that government will support the domestic electronic equipment industry for leveraging the opportunities related to Industry 4.0. A National Framework has also been proposed for promoting Global Capability Centres in emerging tier 2 cities.

Export promotion mission announced by FM

The government will set up an export promotion mission with sectoral and ministerial targets which will be driven jointly by the Ministries of Commerce, MSME, and Finance.

It will facilitate easy access to export credit, cross-border factory support, support to MSMEs to tackle non-tariff measures to overseas market.

Govt announces digital repository of Indian knowledge systems

Surveying, documentation, and conservation of the manuscript heritage of the country has been announced by the government in partnership with academic institutions, museums, libraries, and private collectors will be undertaken to cover more than 1 crore manuscripts.

The government has announced that it will establish a digital repository of Indian knowledge systems for knowledge sharing

National Geo-Spatial Mission announced by FM

The government will start a national Geo-Spatial Mission to develop foundational geo-spatial infrastructure 

Second gene bank to come up to facilitate food, nutritional security

The second gene bank with 10 lakh germplasm lines will be set up for future food and nutritional security. This step will provide conservation support to both public and private sectors for genetic resources

Investing in innovation: FM announces Rs 20,000 cr for R&D

To promote private sector-driven research, development, and innovation initiatives announced in July 2024, the FM has allocated Rs 20 thousand crores for this purpose. 

A fund-of-funds will be used to catalyse the next-generation of start-ups as a part of this initiative. In the next 5 years, under the PM Research Fellowship Scheme, the FM has stated that the government will provide 10,000 fellowships for technological research in IITs and IISc with enhanced financial support

Medical tourism & Heal in India

Medical tourism and Heal in India will be promoted in partnership with private sectors along with capacity building