'More money in hands of people will spur demand'

Union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman talks about the budget's attempts to increase spending as the country pushes forward towards achieving the objective of Viksit Bharat by the year 2047

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The budget for FY26 puts money back into the hands of the middle class and taxpayers, a category that is "helping run the country", finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman said in a post-budget interview with Doordarshan on Saturday."I'm not viewing this as income foregone," she added. Edited excerpts:

Why has the government foregone 1 trillion in revenue by changing the tax slabs?

What is the economic justification behind this move? I want to thank the honourable Prime Minister because it was his guidance that we keep aside the calculation of revenue foregone and put money back into the hands of people. Who are these people or category of people? They're taxpayers. When we have to put money in the hands of people then it's a different subject, giving free grains, giving pension to senior citizens below poverty line, we have several different categories. But this category of taxpayers is the one which is helping run the country, and the PM suggested that we should do some calculations by which the honest taxpayers get some relief. When we went back to him with our calculations, he immediately accepted it. So, I'm not viewing this as income foregone but giving more money in the hands of the taxpayers.

You have made an additional 1.5 lakh crore credit guarantee provision for MSMEs (micro, small and medium enterprises) for the next five years. The credit will be available at what rate?