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To prepare for the budget for 2026-27 that is likely to be presented on February 1, 2026, during the first half of the Parliament's budget session, the Ministry of Finance plans to kick-start its budget-making exercise from October 9 this year, especially in the backdrop of increasing geopolitical headwinds and the steep US tariffs of 50 per cent levied on Indian exports.

"Pre-budget meetings chaired by Secretary (Expenditure) shall commence from October 9, 2025," stated the Budget Circular (2026-27) of the Department of Economic Affairs.

It asked all financial advisors to ensure that “the necessary details required in the appendices I to VII are properly entered...before or latest by October 3, 2025.”

It also said that all hard copies of the data in the specified formats should be submitted for cross-verification.
The Budget Estimates for 2026-27 will be provisionally finalised after completion of pre-budget meetings, it said, adding that RE (Revised Estimate) meetings continue till around mid-November 2025.

 

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"All the ministries/departments should submit details of autonomous bodies/ implementing agencies, for which a dedicated corpus fund has been created. The reasons for their continuance and requirement of grant-in-aid support, and why the same should not be wound up, should be explained," it further said.

The budget for the current fiscal has projected a growth rate of 10.1 per cent in nominal terms, while the fiscal deficit is pegged at 4.4 per cent of the gross domestic product (GDP). The government estimates the Indian economy to grow in the range of 6.3-6.8 per cent during the current financial year.

To sustain an 8 per cent-plus growth, the government will have to include addressing issues of boosting demand and job creation.

In 2017, the then finance minister, Arun Jaitley, had for the first time presented the annual accounts on February 1, 2017, after Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led government scrapped a colonial-era tradition of presenting the Budget at the end of February.

With the pre-ponement of the budget, ministries are now allocated their budgeted funds from the start of the financial year beginning in April. This gives government departments more leeway to spend, as well as allows companies time to adapt to business and taxation plans.