While Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman’s Budget 2026 speech took over Indian news channels on February 1, social media was immediately consumed by relatable reactions and hilarious memes related to the new announcements.

Even the likes of former co-founder and managing director of the fintech company BharatPe, Ashneer Grover, joined in on the fun on X, as many chose to vent about their feelings through laughs.

2026 Budget memes take over X

Channelling his aura from the old Shark Tank India days, Grover took to his official X account. “This budget reminded of my rebuke on Shark Tank to one of the pitchers,” he wrote online. ““Bilkul time waste kiya aapne – apna bhi aur humara bhi !” (Total waste of time – both yours and ours)

GingerMonkey founder Abhishek Asthana, who goes by ‘@GabbarSingh’ on X, said: “This budget could have been an email.”

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With investors reacting to a series of tax changes announced by FM Sitharaman during the Budget speech, Indian markets witnessed a sharp fall. Several users turned the falling figures into a meme as well. Sharing a video of the sudden crash, a user posted a video of multiple people fainting at a mass gathering. They captioned the post: “Stock market after Budget announcement.”

Various posts voicing the middle class’ plight became a big reason for resounding laughter on X. “Middle Class waiting for Tax Relief in,” a post said alongside a still from the Amazon Prime Video India’s series Panchayat. The photo hoped to represent the current dilemma of the middle class, as it showed characters saying, “Na humara naam nahi hai” (Our name is not there). 

Yet another user joked on X: “Me watching Budget with 470 rupees in my account.”

Another popular Budget meme that has repeatedly made it to X over the years alluded to a different scene from the Panchayat series. “Aapke fund se thoda paisa mil jata to badhiya ho jaata” (Would be great if we could some money from your funds),” the photo says.

Another common share on X included a still from Golmaal 3, with the character saying, “Samajh nahi aaya. Par sun ke achha laga (Didn’t really understand anything, but loved hearing it,” X users’ joke insinuated that was how Prime Minister Narendra Modi pleasantly reacted to the FM’s Budget speech, while others suffered.

In a major throwback eliciting loud chuckles on X, netizens even brought back Maharashtrian politician Uddhav Thackeray‘s old speech at the Indian Business Leader Awards. “By the time I understand one budget, the next one is already out,” the politician had blurted out, as he stood right next to Sitharaman, who also couldn’t hold back her laughter at the time. 

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Budget 2026 highlights

As always, the focus was on what got costlier or cheaper. Items falling into the former category included certain luxury items like watches and imported alcohol, STT (Securities Transaction Tax) on Futures and Options, and income tax misreporting.

Removal of exemptions of coffee-related items and ammonium phosphate or ammonium nitro-phosphate are likely to result in coffee roasting, brewing, vending machines and fertilisers getting more expensive.