Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Thursday said that the Union Budget arrives at a moment when there is a rare balance for India – GDP’s high growth rate is accompanied by low inflation, which is being held continuously for some time.Replying to a debate on the Union Budget 2026-27 in Rajya Sabha, Sitharaman attacked the Congress saying the party was obsessed with outlays.“Congress cares about outlay, not about outcomes, we care about results. They want us to borrow more money and also release funds to the state. The government cannot borrow excessively,” Sitharaman said, emphasising that the government was not hesitant about providing monetary support to states, but it wanted results.“The Centre’s fund is not a free pool of cash that can be used. The government has sent over Rs 48 lakh crore directly into accounts of beneficiaries through direct benefit transfer and saved Rs 4.31 lakh crore by plugging leakages,” she told the House.Sitharaman urged the Rajya Sabha members to ask their respective state governments to participate in schemes announced in the Budget. She also countered the Opposition’s charge of expenditure curtailment in welfare schemes.The Finance Minister noted that only Rs 37,000 crore was unspent in 14 social sector schemes in the last 10 years, compared to Rs 94,000 crore during the UPA regime.She said that the National Statistical Office gave the first advanced estimate, where real GDP growth is projected at 7.4 per cent for 2025-26, with a nominal growth rate at around 8 per cent, while consumer price index inflation has softened to nearly 2 per cent.She further said that high personal income tax collection did not necessarily mean that the middle class was being suppressed or crushed in the country. “There is no evidence of any suppression of the middle class in the country, but there is evidence of middle-class expansion,” she said and added that there was no inflation crisis right now. She asserted that India was maintaining low inflation not by chance, but by strategy.“When opposition members cited unemployment as a concern that was not addressed by the Budget, Sitharaman said that the Indian market was undergoing a structural transformation, with record low unemployment. “India’s unemployment has fallen from 5.6 per cent in 2017-18 to 3.2 per cent in 2023-24. In the second quarter of financial year 2026, 56.2 crore people were employed, and that 8.7 lakh net new jobs were created in just three months,” she added.Rajya Sabha MP Jaya Bachchan criticised the Finance Minister over taxation leading to increased film ticket prices. Bachchan said, “You have given very good answers. You are a great storyteller. For us, great entertainment. I am talking about the entertainment industry and ticket prices. We are the highest tax-paying industry.”Sitharaman clarified that entertainment tax and ticket pricing were under the state governments’ jurisdiction.