Top News

Ahead of the Union Budget 2026-27,  India Inc remained optimistic across industries with 50 per cent of respondents expecting GDP growth to remain in the 7–8 per cent range in FY27, according to a 'Pre-Budget 2026–27 Survey' conducted by FICCI.

Meanwhile, respondents across sectors underscored the pertinence of fiscal prudence, with around 42 per cent of respondents expecting the fiscal deficit target of 4.4 per cent of GDP to be achieved in FY 2025–26, reinforcing confidence in the centre's fiscal consolidation roadmap.

Pre-Budget 2026: Top Macroeconomic Priorities 

Based on the survey, three macroeconomic priorities that clearly emerge for the Union Budget 2026–27 were job creation, a sustained thrust on infrastructure, and stronger support to exports.

Amongst the sectors expected to be in focus, respondents identified infrastructure, manufacturing, defence and MSMEs amongst others

"The government must continue to lay thrust on manufacturing and capex. Setting up of a mega electronics industrial cluster to co-locate OEMs, EMS firms and component suppliers will be important to give a further push to this strategic sector. Equally important is to lay thrust on defence manufacturing, according to the FICCI note.

Sharing expectations linked to defence outlay, FICCI's pre-budget survey noted that the centre must 'enhance the capital outlay share in defence allocations to 30% to modernise frontline assets, UAVs, counter-UAV systems, EW systems and AI-enabled capabilities."

"Additionally, enhancing Drone PLI outlay to ₹1,000 crore and establishing a ₹1,000 crore Drone R&D Fund will give a boost to this emerging sector," it said.

Budget 2026: What's In It For Export-Driven Sectors?

Given the rising global trade frictions, uncertainty on global tariffs and non-tariff barriers such as CBAM and deforestation-related regulations, the expectations of support to exports in the Union Budget is clearly evident.

To strengthen India’s export performance and integration into global value chains, respondents "emphasised the need for streamlining trade facilitation and customs processes, reducing logistics and port-related bottlenecks, and strengthening export incentive and refund mechanisms."

"It is recommended that the Union budget enhances allocations under RoDTEP to improve export competitiveness. Industry also looks forward to announcements related to reforms in SEZ policy and further rationalisation of customs tariffs in the budget. The customs tariffs can be further rationalised by converging rate slabs to three levels. This would significantly simplify the system, bring certainty and reduce compliance costs," FICCI noted.

Key Tax Linked Budget 2026 Expectations

On the direct tax front, key expectations of respondents included simplifying compliance through digitisation, providing tax certainty, and improving dispute resolution and litigation management.