Budget 2025-26: Dual pricing on the cards as govt ratchets up war on cash

As part of its strategic direction to declare ‘war on cash’, the federal government is likely to introduce differential tax and transaction rates for cash and digital payments across various sectors, including fuel pricing, in the upcoming budget. This is going to be the most crucial step among many other things that Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb has been hinting at in recent days and may unveil during his budget speech on June 10. According to sources, the next year’s budget would also be envisaging lower tax rate on the salaried class — though by a tiny margin of 1 to 1.5 percentage points — under strict directions of the prime minister to give a message that the government is at least beginning to ease burden where tax rates are too high, even if it is unable to reduce them significantly.