Govt to hold pre‐budget meetings from October 9, 2025

The Department of Economic Affairs (DEA) on Friday announced that the pre-budget meetings will be commencing from October 9, 2025 and continue till mid-November.

The DEA, which released the Budget circular for 2026-27, also said that budget‐related data shall be submitted through the Union Budget Information System (UBIS). Furthermore, Ministries and departments have been asked to submit their provisional Statement of Budget Estimates (SBE) in prescribed formats through the Union Budget Information System (UBIS) by October 3.

"Pre‐budget meetings shall commence from 9 th of October, 2025 (Thursday) and shall continue till around mid‐November, 2025. The Budget Estimates for 2026‐27 as well as Revised Estimates for 2025-26 will be provisionally finalized after completion of pre‐ Budget meetings," the DEA said in its Budget circular.

According to the Budget Circular 2026-27, the provisional SBEs submitted by ministries will form the basis for pre-budget discussions. These meetings will help provisionally finalise the Revised Estimates for 2025-26 and the Budget Estimates for 2026-27.

The DEA said discussions during these meetings will focus on:

• Requirements of funds across expenditure categories and receipts of ministries/departments.
• Receipts of departmentally run commercial undertakings, netted against gross expenditure.
• Non-tax revenues, including user charges and arrears.
• Expenditure estimates on a net basis, i.e. gross expenditure net of recoveries/receipts.

The Budget for FY27 will likely be presented on February 1, 2026, at a time when the Indian economy would be navigating global trade turmoil sparked by Trump's tariffs, while also remaining on course to become the third-largest economy.