The comments come after Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Saturday announced a budget for the year through March 2016 prioritising economic growth over reform, which is likely to slow the pace of narrowing a fiscal deficit.
Jaitley set next fiscal year's deficit target at 3.9 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) - higher than analyst estimates - and said the deficit is likely to fall to 3 percent of GDP in 2017/18, one year later than expectations.
Standard & Poor's Ratings Services (S&P) said the budget highlighted a commitment to keep the deficit low, but lacked structural reform.
S&P and major peers Moody's Investors Service and Fitch Ratings rate Indian credit at the lowest investment grade with a "Stable" outlook.
"In terms of the structural effects of the budget, we see the improvement has been not as great as it could have been," said Kim Eng Tan, S&P senior director for Asia-Pacific sovereign ratings, in a conference call.
