Budget stresses stability amid global uncertainty, customs overhaul a signature reform: Sitharaman

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman

• Stability and policy continuity are central themes of the Union Budget.
• India remains an attractive investment destination amid global uncertainty.
• Customs overhaul highlighted as a major ongoing reform in the Budget.

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Stability has emerged as the central theme of the Union Budget, with the government using the exercise to signal policy continuity and reassure businesses at a time of heightened global uncertainty, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said in an interview with Network18 Editor-in-Chief Rahul Joshi.

“It is the stability point that I want to underline,” Sitharaman said, emphasising that India’s economic performance over the past four years reflected consistent policymaking rather than short-term political considerations. “The Indian economy has grown at the fastest rate among major economies now for four years,” she said in her first exclusive interview after presenting the Budget on February 1.

She linked this consistency to the government’s approach towards business, stressing that the focus remained unchanged even as Prime Minister Narendra Modi entered his third term. “We have to be receptive, we have to be available. We have to extend the red carpet, but remove the red tape simultaneously. Ease of doing business and tax certainty, bringing stability for businesses, have been core beliefs,” Sitharaman said.

According to the finance minister, the Budget sends out a clear message that India remains an attractive destination for investment at a time when global uncertainty is complicating decision-making for companies worldwide. “We are clearly projecting India as a place where business can be done, even when global uncertainty is making decisions difficult for businesses from outside to come in,” she said, adding that India’s large consumer market continued to offer significant opportunity.

Customs overhaul a signature reform

Sitharaman described the ongoing overhaul of the customs framework as one of the Budget’s major reform signatures, noting that several measures announced were part of a broader, continuing exercise.

“The complete overhaul of customs is a major signature as a reform,” she said. While some steps were highlighted in the Budget, she pointed out that many others could not be mentioned due to time constraints and would continue to be rolled out.

She emphasised that reforms should not be viewed in isolation through the Budget alone. “Aside from the Budget, reforms continue. It is continuing to move and move at a good pace,” she said.

Planning amid global uncertainty

The finance minister said the scale of global uncertainty facing economies today was unprecedented and had a direct bearing on policy planning. “Every government has faced global uncertainty at different levels. But the extent to which global uncertainties are bearing upon countries and impacting decision-making has never been seen before,” she said.

Against this backdrop, Sitharaman said the Budget had been framed with a multi-layered planning horizon in mind — addressing immediate needs, the upcoming Finance Commission cycle, and longer-term goals of Viksit Bharat. “We have to plan for what is going to happen this year, what is going to commence in the next five years, and also leading up to Viksit Bharat,” she said.

She noted that this was the first Budget of a new Finance Commission cycle and effectively the first Budget in the second quarter of the 21st century, setting direction and goals for the years ahead. This, she said, explained why the document looked different from earlier Budgets. “That is why this Budget is slightly different from every other Budget. A lot more is set out through Part B, which is unusual, because it is not just about tax, but about the process taking us towards 2047,” Sitharaman said.