Haryana Congress leader Hooda picks holes in 2025-26 budget estimates
The former chief minister said that the increase in 2025-26 budget outlay was not 13% as claimed by the chief minister in his budget address. “The increase is 7.6%. And if we consider the 4.8% inflation as mentioned in economic survey, the actual increase will be 3.1%,” Hooda said.
Former Haryana chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda on Thursday picked holes in the 2025-26 budget estimates presented by chief minister Nayab Singh Saini.
During the general discussion on the budget estimates presented by Saini on March 17, the Congress leader said that though the chief minister claimed in his budget address that the revenue deficit, fiscal deficit and debt to gross state domestic product (GSDP) ratio was within the prescribed limits, a 2022-23 audit report prepared by comptroller and auditor general (CAG) tells a different story.
“The CAG report has said Haryana’s revenue deficit was 1.73% as against required 0.98 %, the fiscal deficit was 3.12% as against the requirement of 2.98% and ratio of debt to GSDP was 29.8% as against the requirement of 24.52%. This clearly shows that the state government has been regularly breaching the parameters of financial prudence,” Hooda said.
The former chief minister said that the increase in 2025-26 budget outlay was not 13% as claimed by the chief minister in his budget address. “The increase is 7.6%. And if we consider the 4.8% inflation as mentioned in economic survey, the actual increase will be 3.1%,” Hooda said.
The 2025-26 budget outlay of ₹2.05 lakh crore ( ₹2,05,017.29 crore) was about 8% higher than the ₹1.89 lakh crore ( ₹1,89,876.61 crore) presented by Saini’s predecessor, Manohar Lal Khattar while presenting the 2024-25 budget estimates last year. The state government had fallen short of the proposed mark and had to revise its budget outlay to ₹1.80 lakh crore ( ₹1,80,313.57 crore) for 2024-25 fiscal.
Hooda said that the revenue receipts for 2025-26 were projected at ₹1,27,817 crore and out of this ₹1,09,700 crore will go towards payment of salaries, pension etc. “The revenue expenditure will be ₹1,48,416 crore and revenue deficit will be ₹20,599 crore. This means that income is not sufficient to meet day to day administrative expense of the government,” the former chief minister said.
He also pointed out that the CAG has reported loss of ₹1,103 crore revenue in 2021-22 on account of under assessment, short levy of taxes - excise duty, stamp duty and registration duty.
The Congress leader said that the state government will borrow ₹71,350 crore in 2025-26 as loan and out of this amount, a sum ₹61,220 crore will have to be paid back as principal amount and interest. This means that the state government will only have ₹10,212 crore, he said.
Pointing out decline in capital expenditure, Hooda said that a sum of ₹16,164 crore has been kept for capital expenditure in 2025-26 estimates. “If one takes out the miscellaneous receipts of ₹4,500 crore from it, the government will be left with only ₹11,664 crore. How will the government fulfill the lofty announcements it has made in the budget? The government will have to borrow more,” Hooda said.
When Social Justice minister Krishan Bedi interrupted Hooda, the former CM objected saying he will not yield. Chief minister, Nayab Singh Saini then intervened to say that he will reply to the points raised by Hooda during his reply next week.
Hooda also demanded that the state government should issue a white paper on the debt liability and state of finances.
Speaking about the monthly financial incentive of ₹2,100 promised by the BJP under the Lado Lakshmi Yojana, Hooda said that allocation of ₹5,000 crore for this scheme was not sufficient for paying 82.50 lakh women aged 18 to 60 years. “With this allocation, the government can only pay 25% of the women. What about the remaining 75%?” he asked.
