From tax relief to jobs: What Indians want from Nirmala Sitharaman’s Budget 2026

Finance Miner Nirmala Sitharaman is set to present the Union Budget 2026-27 in parliament in a few hours. This is a record ninth consecutive Budget being presented Sitharaman. As is the case every year, this year too, all eyes are on important announcements that will shape how Indians save and spend.Union Finance Miner Nirmala Sitharaman with Union Miner of State for Finance Pankaj Chaudhary and other officials outside the Finance Minry ahead of the presentation of the ‘Union Budget 2025-26’, in New Delhi, India, on Saturday, February 1, 2025. (Sanjeev Verma/Hindustan Times)Ahead of the presentation, many Indians took to social media to lay out their expectations from the Union Budget 2026-27. (Also read: Union Budget 2026: FM’s budget speech to put ‘unprecedented emphasis’ on Part B)Expectations from Budget 2026Zerodha founder and CEO Nithin Kamath said in an X post that he wanted the STT to be reduced. STT or Securities Transaction Tax is a government tax applied when one trades on recognised stock exchanges.X user Laxmidhar Biswal also said he hoped for an end to STT. He added that the government should remove the Long Term Capital Gains Tax (LTCG) while lowering the Short Term Capital Gains Tax (STCG).One X user said that the standard deduction should be increased to ₹1 lakh. He also hoped for lower LTCG and STCG.CFA Peeyush Chitlangia wrote: “Not sure why there is an expectation of LTCG tax on equities being cut in the budget.. I would be happy if the government does not increase it.”Speaking to news agency IANS, one businessman from Uttar Pradesh said he hoped for GST reforms in the Budget.“We can tell you the expectation of the budget, what is our expectation. And first of all, we would like the government to focus on GST in the budget. This is the biggest and most important thing… But there are a lot of makes in GST. And if we correct those makes in this budget, then the businessman will get an appropriate environment to do business,” the businessman said.Meanwhile, a student from Rajasthan hoped for the introduction of schemes that would create employment opportunities for the youth. “My first expectation is that more employment opportunities should be created for women and, as much as possible, for the youth,” the student said.