India’s budget on Wednesday will test the government’s resolve to stay fiscally prudent as expectations of lower taxes, wider social security net and further boost to production gather steam before national elections.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman may tweak income-tax slabs to provide relief to the nation’s vast middle class and increase spend on the poor through programs such as rural jobs, while ramping up financial incentives for local manufacturing, according to economists and reports in local media.
Social welfare programs would get “appropriate” allocation as “the gap between have and have nots has widened,” said India Ratings & Research Pvt.