Budget Supports Continuous Growth, Gives Thrust To Electronics: Vaishnaw

New Delhi: Intact capital allocation and simplified customs duty in the Union Budget 2025 will boost infrastructure sector and electronics manufacturing ecosystem for long-term growth, IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said.

In an interview, Vaishnaw said the budget has met capital requirements for the development and at the same time provided a huge relief to the middle class with the announcement of no income tax for up to Rs12 lakh annual income. "It's a dream budget. On the one hand, the requirement for capital investment has been met, and on the other hand, a huge relief has been given to the middle classes with no income tax of up to Rs12 lakh annual income. This budget will pave the way for our continuous growth because the capital investment is intact," Vaishnaw said.

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman presented Union Budget 2025-26, envisaging an expenditure of Rs50,65,345 crore, an increase of 7.4 per cent over the current fiscal. The budget has proposed a total capital expenditure of Rs 11.22 lakh crore in the next fiscal and effective capital expenditure of Rs15.48 lakh crore.

Vaishnaw said the budget took care of interest of farmers, youth, MSMEs, middle classes, manufacturing, deep tech, investment for science and technology, and still the fiscal deficit has been pegged lower at 4.4 per cent of the GDP. Talking about the impact of the budget on electronics and IT, the minister said that the proposal simplifies custom duty structure, which will boost electronics manufacturing ecosystem and provide base for development of electronics components as well.

"We are manufacturing the finished products. Today, getting the component ecosystem into our country is very important. In the budget, major announcements have been made in custom simplification, in terms of permanent establishment and warehousing facilities -- all those were required very urgently for our component ecosystem to grow in the economy," he said.

The minister said the budget provides a broad framework, and specific schemes to promote individual segments will be announced gradually.