Finance Bill approved with 35 amendments

The Rajya Sabha on Thursday returned the Finance Bill-2025 to the Lok Sabha, along with 35 government Amendments, thus completing the 2025-26 budget exercise that started on February 1.

Replying to the debate on the Finance Bill, Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said the tendency of the ministry would be to exercise caution and not let go of revenues. “But, here we wanted to show our respect for the Indian taxpayer. We have moved towards setting Rs 12 lakh as threshold, up to which no one will have to pay any tax,” she said.

Sitharaman said the purpose of the Finance Bill was to bring tax certainty and promote ease of business. “Budget after budget, we are reducing duty to meet India’s aspiration of becoming a manufacturing hub for batteries,” she said.

By bringing down customs duty, the government attempted to benefit small and medium industries that import intermediary goods, she said.

Responding to Congress’ P Chidambaram, who remarked that the Budget has vanished without a trace, Sitharaman said, in 2014, when the NDA came to power, India was the 10th largest economy; today India has become the fifth largest economy.

On fiscal policy, Chidambaram said when the NDA government assumed office in May 2014, the fiscal deficit at the end of the previous year was 4.5% and at the end of 2024-25, it would be 4.8%, taking the country’s economy back to where it started.

Meanwhile, Sitharaman said for the first time, the government has implemented full parity between the pensioners of pre and post Seventh Pay Commission. The Budget 2025-26 envisages an expenditure of Rs 50.65 trillion, an increase of 7.4%. The total capital expenditure proposed for the next fiscal is Rs 11.22 trillion and an effective capital expenditure of Rs 15.48 trillion.