The Union Budget for 2026–27, presented by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in Parliament on February 1, favours corporates and big capital at the expense of the working class people of the country. Mass organisations such as the Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU), All India Kisan Sabha (AIKS) and the All India Agricultural Workers’ Union (AIAWU) have flayed the Budget and have given protest calls against it.

Reject anti-worker, pro-corporate Budget: CITU

The Budget appears inconsequential and directionless, even as the Economic Survey 2025–26 itself acknowledges that the economy has reached a critical juncture, with the global environment undergoing geopolitical realignments that will influence investment flows, supply chains, and growth prospects for years to come. The Budget neither addresses these core challenges nor offers any meaningful policy shift to prepare India for the turbulent global situation.

As consistently warned by CITU and other central trade unions, both the Economic Survey and the Budget seek to manage the crisis of the global capitalist order by shifting its burden onto the working class and the common people. The so-called reform agenda continues to centre on the notification of anti-worker labour codes and the dilution of quality control norms, undermining labour rights and domestic industry.

The Budget serves as a numerical façade concealing an economy in deep distress. In its pursuit of a 4.3 per cent fiscal deficit target and a reduction of the debt-to-GDP ratio to 55.6 per cent, the government has placed macro-fiscal optics above the pressing realities of hunger and unemployment. This is a squeeze Budget that withdraws liquidity from the hands of the poor; and despite a total expenditure of Rs 53.5 lakh crore, the real picture reveals a systematic erosion of social support. There is no serious attempt to raise revenue by taxing highly profitable corporates. Instead, a 12.49 per cent rise in non-tax revenue in 2026–27 is driven mainly by a projected 16.9 per cent increase in dividends from PSUs. Increasing burden of debt servicing and interest liabilities has been forcing atrocious cuts in development and welfare related allocations.

The Budget is a blatant gift to the billionaire class. The minimum alternate tax (MAT) has been reduced from 15 per cent to 14 per cent, corporate safe-harbour provisions have been expanded, and the timeline for advanced pricing agreements (APAs) has been shortened to two years, easing scrutiny of multinational corporations. Meanwhile, the common people face a ₹28.7 lakh crore net tax burden driven by regressive GST and personal income tax. The target of Rs 80,000 crore worth of disinvestment and the deceptive claim of ease of living through the reduction of import duty from 20 per cent to 10 per cent on goods for personal use have been announced, while the flagship programme, PM Vishwakarma Yojana, has witnessed a reduced allocation — from Rs 3,993 crore in the 2024-25 actuals to Rs 3,891 crore.

The Budget serves the corporate classes by further expanding and increasing allocations for incentives. The Electronics Components Manufacturing Subsidy 2.0, with an outlay of Rs 40,000 crore, the customs duty exemption on imports for nuclear power projects until 2035, and the tax holiday for foreign companies investing in data centres until 2047 clearly demonstrate the pro-corporate priorities of the government. Telecom infrastructure allocations for private service providers have surged from  Rs 9,650 crore to  Rs 24,000 crore, directly subsidising private players. Despite tall claims on AI and innovation, allocations for India’s AI Mission have been slashed from  Rs 2,000 crore to Rs 1,000 crore.

Increased capital expenditure is being financed through aggressive asset monetisation and privatisation via InvITs, REITs, NIIF, NaBFID, and proposed public-asset-specific REITs. This reflects a two-pronged strategy: extracting higher dividends from PSUs to plug fiscal gaps and handing over public assets to private corporates for profit.

Although the Budget is presented as a landmark initiative for supporting MSMEs, in reality, the actual increase in budgetary allocations for MSMEs appears to be narrowly oriented towards activities which are largely situated at the lower end of production hierarchies. On the other hand, the government has allowed SEZ units to sell in the Domestic Tariff Area at concessional duties, undermining domestic firms. This reveals a consistent policy of shielding capital from risk while leaving labour unprotected.

Welfare allocations for Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, North-Eastern regions, agriculture, rural development, education, health, and social welfare have been cut. The Gender Budget has been reduced by Rs 51,144 crore.

The stagnation of employment in the formal sectors has pushed millions into insecure gig work. Despite repeated references in the Economic Survey, the Budget provides no allocation for gig workers’ welfare and fails to honour even existing commitments, let alone provide legal recognition. Similarly, no budgetary allocation has been made for the other sections of the unorganized workers.

This is a completely anti-people and anti-working-class Budget at a time when Indian workers are struggling to survive amid economic turmoil. CITU unequivocally rejects this anti-worker, pro-corporate Budget and calls upon the working people of India to intensify united resistance against these policies, to come onto the streets, and to move towards the 12^TH February General Strike.

Enhancing farmers’ income remains a smokescreen: AIKS

The Budget fails yet again to present any commitment towards the strategic regeneration of agriculture -- the most crucial livelihood sector for the people. Agriculture was largely ignored by the finance minister in her Budget speech, small and marginal farmers were mentioned just once, while there was a conspicuous absence of any mention of rural labour. The budgetary figures echo this neglect. 

According to the Economic Survey, the average growth rate of agriculture in 2025 saw a fall. The growth rate registered in the previous quarter was 3.5 per cent, against the decadal average growth rate of 4.45 per cent. Crop production witnessed the most drastic fall. Given this context of stagnation in the agriculture sector, it was expected that the Union Budget would provide some relief and momentum. But the Budget disappoints once again.  

The total budget allocated to the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare at about Rs 1.40 lakh crore is just a 5.3 per cent increase in nominal terms from the Revised Estimate 2025-26. Accounting for inflation, this implies that the real allocation to agriculture has not seen any substantial growth. 

The Budget fails in terms of providing any additional support to boost agriculture research and development. Despite the finance minister mentioning enhancing  agriculture  productivity as a kartavya, the budgetary allocation to the Department of Agricultural Research and Education has been reduced from Rs 10,281 crore Revised Estimate (RE) 2025-26 to Rs 9,967 crore (BE 2026-27). The rhetoric on investing in cash crops continued even in this year’s Budget. The speech underlined a focus on coconut, cocoa, cashew, nuts, and sandalwood. However, in reality, missions such as Cotton Technology Mission, Mission on Pulses, Hybrid Seeds, and Makhana Board, introduced in the past, find no mention in the budgetary figures. 

Talking of relief to farmers, the Budget presents no remarkable proposal. The subsidy on fertilizers has seen a reduction from Rs 1,86,460 crore (RE 2025-26) to Rs 1,70,781 crore (BE 2025-26). Food subsidy has also seen a reduction from the revised estimates of previous years. There was no mention of the MGNREGA or even the newly passed VB-GRAMG scheme in the Budget speech, which indicates the total dismissal of the significance of rural employment. VB-GRAMG scheme has been allocated Rs 95,692 crore. This allocation is the Centre’s share of 60 per cent towards the scheme and states will have to bear the huge burden of more than Rs 63,794 crore.

The only major announcement concerning rural employment was the Mahatma Gandhi Gram Swaraj Yojana, promoting village industries; however, no significant financial allocations were made. Among the agriculture and allied sectors, the only significant budgetary allocation has been made under animal husbandry and dairying, from Rs 5,303 crore (RE 2025-26) to Rs 6,135 crore (BE 2026-27). However, here again the thrust has been on expansion of credit-infused veterinary hospitals, breeding in the private sector and garnering foreign investments. The AIKS calls upon farmers, rural workers and the people at large to strongly protest against the anti-farmer, anti-worker, anti-federal Budget. 

Budget fails to address agrarian distress: AIAWU

The Budget continues to favour the big capital by providing tax concessions, exemptions, and even long term tax holidays to specific industries but no relief has been provided to the common citizens. Instead of addressing the real concerns of the people, the government has chosen to drastically cut allocations to critical social sectors. There is a drastic decline in almost all critical schemes to provide support to small peasants, a lot of whom are agricultural workers. There is a reduction in allocation to Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojna, Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchai Yojna, Pradhan Mantri Krishi Vikas Yojna and for various other such schemes and departments there has been no increase in allocations even when they have seen higher Revised Estimates (RE). The worrying trend of falling financial allocation for input subsidies can be seen in this Budget too. The urea allocation has fallen by Rs 2,094.5 crore year-on-year. Whereas, nutrient-based subsidy has seen only an insignificant increase of Rs 5,000 crore. A similar trend is observed in the total government support given to the fertilizer industry which has consistently fallen since 2022-23.

This budget allocated to the Department of Rural Development is Rs 1,94,368.81 crore, which was previously Rs 1,87,754.53 crore. This is a meagre increase in comparison to the required allocation as per the demand of rural India. The allocation for the pension scheme under the department has also either decreased or there is no significant improvement. The allocation for the National Family Benefit Scheme has been reduced to Rs 400 crore from Rs 659 crore. Allocations for Indira Gandhi National Widow Pension Scheme (IGWPS) and Indira Gandhi National Disability Pension Scheme (IGNDPS) remain the same as last year. 

The budgetary allocation for VB-GRAMG makes it clear that the government has no interest in providing employment guarantee to the people of rural India. There is a demand of Rs 2.50 lakh crore to ensure employment guarantee to those seeking work in rural India.

The schemes for social justice by the central government have continued their miniscule share of the budget allocation. Despite growing deprivation in both countryside and urban areas, land dispossession, and continuing of the worst forms of caste atrocities, the Budget reflects consistently small allocations – much of the schemes for SCs and STs receive only 0.0005 per cent of the total expenditure in central sector schemes.

Praising the Budget, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said, “India wants to become the world’s third-largest economy,” but there is nothing in the Budget that would help India achieve that goal. The Economic Survey 2025-26 highlighted that the global market will continue to remain fragile and there is a 10-20 per cent chance of a global financial crisis worse than the one of 2008. The central government’s own survey’s claim has led to no impact on the Budget. The Budget fails to address the problems of rising income inequality, cost of living, unemployment, agrarian distress, environmental degradation, illiteracy, and poverty, leading to not just worsening lives but loss of lives. (END)