The FICCI Northeast Advisory Council today welcomed the Assam Budget 2026-27, presented in the Legislative Assembly by Finance Minister Jayanta Malla Baruah on July 10.
This is the first full Budget of the Himanta Biswa Sarma-led Government’s second consecutive term. The Budget provides for aggregate expenditure of Rs 2,85,084 crore, targets a fiscal deficit of 3 per cent of GSDP, and reduces the closing budget deficit to Rs 419 crore, while raising capital expenditure to around Rs 29,000 crore, stated a press release
Welcoming the Budget, Ranjit Barthakur, Chairman, FICCI Northeast Advisory
Council, said: “I congratulate the Chief Minister Dr.Himanta Biswa Sarma and the Finance Minister Jayanta Malla Baruah on a Budget that achieves what very few states have managed — pairing genuine fiscal discipline with genuine growth ambition. The closing budget deficit has been brought down for the third successive year, to just Rs 419 crore, and the fiscal deficit is held at 3 per cent of GSDP, even as capital expenditure rises to around Rs 29,000 crore — nearly ten times what the State invested a decade ago.
This is the fiscal signature of a government that borrows to build, not to consume.”
He further added: “Assam today is India’s fastest-growing state, with GSDP projected at Rs 8.71 lakh crore for 2026-27 and the State on course to become a Rs 10 lakh crore economy by 2028, two years ahead of its own commitment. This Budget converts that momentum into an investible proposition for industry.” Borthakur said l.
Commenting on the tax measures, he said:
“The first meaningful tax rationalisation of this budget cycle has rightly been directed at the base of Assam’s economy. Raising the agricultural income-tax exemption for small tea growers four-fold, from Rs 2.5 lakh to Rs 10 lakh, together with the enhanced orthodox tea production subsidy of Rs 15 per kg and a Rs 3 per kg export incentive, positions Assam tea to capture the global markets opened by India’s new Free Trade Agreements with the UK, the EU and the USA. Equally, the reduction of VAT on piped natural gas from 14.5 per cent to 5 per cent lowers energy costs for households and for gas-consuming industry alike, and will accelerate city gas expansion across the state.”
On the Budget’s green dimension, Barthakur said: “The introduction of a green cess on polluting industries, earmarked for climate and green initiatives, is a pioneering step — among the first climate-linked fiscal instruments by any Indian state. It aligns fiscal policy with the ecological responsibility that must define growth in a biodiversity-rich region like ours. FICCI would be privileged to work with the Government on the design of this instrument, so that it rewards measurable industrial transition and reinvests in Assam’s natural capital.”
