New Delhi

Jamaat-e-Islami Hind (JIH) has asked the government to include provisions that would expand employment generation and lead to equitable wealth distribution in the Union Budget 2026–27.

As part of its annual engagement with the Union Budget process, JIH has furnished a set of recommendations to the government. As per the Jamaat, it has furnished a set of “evidence-based and outcome-oriented recommendations” aimed at addressing structural imbalances in the Indian economy.

The JIH submission situates India’s recent economic performance within a broader policy context, noting that while the country has demonstrated strong capacity for wealth creation reflected in sustained GDP growth, expanding financial markets, and rising corporate profitability, these gains have not translated proportionately into equitable wealth distribution or adequate employment generation.

Indicators of income and wealth concentration, alongside weak employment elasticity of growth and high youth unemployment, underline the need for a fiscal course correction. Rising household expenditure on essentials such as food, healthcare, housing, and education has further constrained consumption and domestic demand.

Against this backdrop, the suggestions emphasise the need to explicitly embed employment outcomes within fiscal policymaking. It proposes institutional mechanisms to assess the labour impact of major public expenditures and incentives, alongside targeted urban employment initiatives focused on climate-resilient infrastructure, urban services, and care work. For rural areas, the submission advocates a district-level, place-based approach to non-farm employment, anchored in local economic strengths and supported through infrastructure, procurement, and concessional finance linked to local hiring.

The recommendations also call for redesigning public credit support for micro, small and medium enterprises to improve employment outcomes. By linking credit incentives to verified job creation, particularly for women and first-time workers. The submission seeks to enhance the social return on public finance. Similarly, it urges a reorientation of industrial incentive schemes toward labour-intensive sectors through employment-weighted incentives that reward job density rather than capital intensity.

In the agrarian sector, the memorandum shifts the policy lens from input support alone to income stabilisation, recognising that income volatility has become a central driver of rural distress. Proposals include price-deficiency payments, crop diversification incentives, expanded off-season rural works, and a gradual transition in institutional credit toward income-smoothing instruments. Parallel attention is given to reducing household financial vulnerability arising from healthcare costs through measures that directly lower out-of-pocket expenditure.

The submission also addresses educated unemployment by proposing structured education-to-employment transition mechanisms, including paid apprenticeships and skill-linked stipends, with priority for districts facing high graduate joblessness. In addition, it highlights the need for targeted socio-economic interventions for Muslims, drawing on established empirical evidence of persistent educational, employment, and credit access disadvantages. These interventions focus on education support, enterprise finance, skill and employment clusters, and improved participation of Muslim-owned MSMEs in public procurement.

On the revenue side, the memorandum recommends a medium-term rebalancing of India’s tax structure to reduce excessive reliance on indirect taxes and strengthen progressive direct taxation. It also explores selective levies on luxury consumption, speculative gains, and digital value creation, alongside measures to enhance state fiscal capacity through predictable and outcome-linked transfers.

Jamaat-e-Islami Hind reiterates that submitting constructive suggestions for the Union Budget has been a regular annual exercise, reflecting its commitment to inclusive and socially responsive economic policymaking. In this context, JIH appeals to other Muslim organisations and civil society institutions to also forward their considered and constructive proposals to the Ministry of Finance, so that diverse socio-economic concerns find representation in the national budgetary process.

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The memorandum concludes by underscoring that India’s central economic challenge lies not in wealth creation alone, but in ensuring that growth translates into employment, income security, and equitable social outcomes. These submissions have been respectfully placed with the Ministry of Finance for consideration in the formulation of the Union Budget 2026–27.