India Inc remains optimistic about growth prospects in FY27, as a Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) survey shows the corporate sector expects good GDP growth and fiscal prudence.
The FICCI pre-budget survey showed that over 80 per cent of respondents from India Inc are confident of India’s economic prospects in FY27. About 50 per cent of survey participants expected India’s GDP growth to remain in the 7–8 per cent range in the financial year 2027.
Further, the industry representative also underscored the importance of fiscal prudence, with around 42 per cent of survey participants expecting the fiscal deficit target of 4.4 per cent of GDP to be achieved in FY 2025–26.
Capex growth
FICCI’s survey shows that job creation, a sustained thrust on infrastructure, and stronger support for exports are among the key macroeconomic expectations for Budget 2026. Govt capital expenditure plans in manufacturing and infrastructure are among the key announcements that India Inc will be looking at in the upcoming budget.
FICCI said that the government must continue to lay thrust on manufacturing and capex. It added that the establishment of a mega electronics industrial cluster to co-locate OEMs, EMS firms, and component suppliers will be important to further push this strategic sector.
“Equally important is to lay thrust on defence manufacturing. The government must enhance the capital outlay share in defence allocations to 30% to modernise frontline assets, UAVs, counter-UAV systems, EW systems and AI-enabled capabilities. Additionally, enhancing Drone PLI outlay to Rs 1,000 crore and establishing a Rs 1,000 crore Drone R&D Fund will give a boost to this emerging sector.” FICCI said.
Export support
FICCI said that as troubles in global trade increase and uncertainty over global tariffs and non-tariff barriers grows, the export sector is expecting a comprehensive support package in the Union Budget.
“To strengthen India’s export performance and integration into global value chains, respondents emphasised the need for streamlining trade facilitation and customs processes, reducing logistics and port-related bottlenecks, and strengthening export incentive and refund mechanisms.”
The export industry is also expecting announcements on reforms to the SEZ policy and further rationalisation of customs tariffs in the budget. FICCI said that customs tariffs can be further rationalised by converging the rate slabs to three levels, leading to a significantly simplified system, greater certainty, and lower compliance costs.