The annual budget session opened with the finance ministry setting a narrower deficit target than last year, and with the future of energy subsidies emerging immediately as the central point of dispute between the treasury benches and the opposition.
In opening remarks, the finance minister said the subsidy structure in its present form was not sustainable and would be restructured toward targeted support rather than a universal rate. No figures were attached to that commitment during the address.
The subsidy question
Under the current arrangement, tariff support applies across all residential consumption bands. The proposed change would concentrate support on the lowest two bands, with the remainder moving to unsubsidised rates over an unspecified transition period.
Opposition speakers argued that the transition period is the substance of the policy and that presenting the change without it makes the proposal impossible to evaluate. They have asked for the full schedule to be tabled before the committee stage begins.
You cannot ask the house to approve a transition and decline to say how long it lasts or who it touches.
Other provisions
Elsewhere the document raises the allocation for primary health and holds education spending close to its current share. Capital expenditure rises modestly, concentrated in water infrastructure and the rural connectivity programme already under way.
Revenue projections assume broadly flat growth in the first half of the year. Independent analysts have noted that the assumption depends on stable input costs, which the document itself flags as the principal risk to the forecast.
Committee hearings begin next week and are expected to run for three weeks before the document returns to the floor.
