00:00More news coming in, this is the inside scoop on the 2026 budget.
00:04The government, at least through our sources, have said this year's budget presentation will be a unique one among all the budgets which have come in the last 75 years.
00:13Earlier budget speeches typically had a lot of detail in Part A, while Part B only consisted of a few announcements.
00:19This time, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitaraman is expected to speak in great detail in Part B.
00:24Part B of the budget speech will play strong emphasis on both short-term and long-term goals is what we are learning.
00:31I am going to go straight across to Business Today Television's Siddharth Zarabi for the very latest.
00:36On that, Siddharth, what are you picking up? Tell us more.
00:40Well, very clearly, this is going to be yet another change, a major one and a significant one,
00:46in the manner in which the government under Prime Minister Narendra Modi has changed how the union government's statement of accounts and policy priorities every year is outlined.
00:59You would recall that not only has the timing, but also the date of the presentation of the budget being brought forward some years ago.
01:08And today's, what we are picking up from Government of India's sources is very clearly an acknowledgement that the budget-making process,
01:19specifically with regard to taxation proposals, for the benefit of our viewers,
01:25the Part A was the grand vision, the macroeconomic policy issues being highlighted.
01:32Part B was the action. Part B was where the armed army used to get impacted to income tax changes, to customs, excise and other changes.
01:43That has changed. All of the indirect tax work is now with the GST Council,
01:49which is a central and state government federal body, which functions separately.
01:55And we know that big announcement that happened prior to Diwali on indirect tax changes, where GST rates were cut across the board.
02:04Prior to that, we know income tax changes that have already been brought in, including up to the slab of 12 lakh rupees,
02:11that happened on the earlier budget.
02:16Therefore, the expectation this time around was that the only thing that can come up in Part B is import duty reductions,
02:23or what we would like to call as customs duty rationalization.
02:28What we, therefore, we are picking up from sources is that Part B, which is the annual financial statement and the tax proposals,
02:37is therefore going to become the main part where the government will not just use it for tax changes,
02:44but to explain what India seeks to achieve on a broader and holistic basis.
02:51Will it outline a broad term tax rate structure which will prevail five years later?
02:58Will it give us hints of what India's imports duty will be in the post-CU and possibly post-US FDA era?
03:07All of these things make it significant in the sense that the content of the budget,
03:14which has changed over the years due to various tax-related changes,
03:18the statement of accounts, not remaining just a statement of accounts,
03:23but a medium to long-term statement of intent.
03:26And before I hand it back to you, it's clear that this ties in with what Prime Minister Modi's government
03:34and Finance Minister Nirmala Sitaraman, who will be presenting a record ninth budget tomorrow,
03:40have been doing.
03:41They have been talking about long-term goals, including the Vixit Bharat goal,
03:46and how India hopes to aspire to be the third largest economy by size.
03:51And therefore, I would say that this pivot that will be made primarily in technical parliamentary terms
04:01for the finance deal, which is essentially part B,
04:05it will be a very interesting presentation that we are now counting down on the clock to.
04:10Well, absolutely.
04:11Obviously, this clearly is a deliberate choice in that sense to emphasize the country's strategic vision
04:17over just traditional numerical presentations, isn't it, Siddharth?
04:22I'm going to leave it there for the moment.
04:24Thank you for joining in with your perspective on that story.
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