She could have used the Union Budget 2026 to give the masses bitter pills to make the Indian economy better. Nirmala Sitharaman avoids income tax reformThough nothing much was expected in the income tax section, as many sops were announced in the Union Budget 2025. She lacked the political courage and did not take the risk, unlike Manmohan Singh, who put the Indian economy on track decades earlier. It was speculated that she would either scrap the old tax regime or add some extra fizz to the new regime. Nirmala Sitharaman should be credited for focusing on fiscal discipline, increasing infrastructure spending, giving more support to the MSME sector, and carrying out customs rationalisation.

Source: dna February 01, 2026 11:19 UTC