Delhi govt blames Centre as shadow cast on Budget

The Delhi government and the Centre have been at loggerheads over several issues.

An unprecedented eleventh hour drama cast a shadow over whether the 2023-24 Budget for Delhi will be presented on Tuesday when it emerged late on Monday that the requisite approval from the President – which is routed through the Union home ministry -- had not arrived.

Chief minister Arvind Kejriwal, speaking to a television channel, hit out at the Union government and said the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led administration at the Centre had “blocked” the elected government of the Capital from presenting the annual Budget.

In the hours that followed, the Aam Aadmi Party government hit out at the chief secretary, accusing the bureaucrat of “sitting” on a file and not passing on the request for clarifications by the Union ministry of home affairs (MHA) for three days – until 2pm on Monday.

“The Budget was sent for MHA’s approval as per regular practice well in advance on March 10. It is now learned that the MHA expressed some concerns on Delhi government’s Budget and refused to give it approval through a letter sent to the chief secretary on March 17. For mysterious reasons, the chief secretary of Delhi kept the letter hidden for three days. I learned about it only at 2pm on March 20,” said Delhi’s finance minister, Kailash Gahlot.

The minister, who presented the city’s economic survey earlier in the day, said the file was sent to him at 6pm. “Subsequently, we responded to MHA’s concerns and submitted the file back to Delhi’s lieutenant governor, after the chief minister’s approval at 9pm on Monday,” he said.

Chief secretary Naresh Kumar and principal secretary, finance, Ashish Chandra Verma did not respond to requests for a comment. The LG’s office did not respond to requests for a comment.

The lieutenant governor’s secretariat, according to people in his office, received the file at 9.25pm, and it was sent back to the chief minister at 10.05pm for further action. The file carried the LG’s approval — but according to protocol, it will need to be sent to the MHA for the presidential nod (which can be provided by the home minister); something that is unlikely to happen by Tuesday, an official aware of the matter said.

If the approval from the MHA does arrive in time, the Delhi government will go ahead with its plan to present the Budget on Tuesday, a person aware of the matter said.

In a statement, the MHA said that the lieutenant governor (LG), who reports to the Centre, had sought some clarifications on March 17 but those were not received. “For the benefit of the people of Delhi, the GNCTD (Delhi government) should submit its reply immediately,” it said.

Chief minister Arvind Kejriwal, speaking to a television channel, hit out at the Union government and said the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led administration at the Centre had “blocked” the elected government of the Capital from presenting the annual Budget. “The Delhi Budget was scheduled to be presented in the Delhi assembly on Tuesday morning. The Centre has blocked the Delhi’s budget. The budget will not be presented on Tuesday morning. The salary of the Delhi government employees will stop from tomorrow. What is going on? It is plain hooliganism,” he said.

The developments marked an unusual controversy even for the two power centres in the Capital – Kejriwal’s government on one side and the Union government (with its representative LG) on the other – that are no strangers to long and bitter confrontations with each other. This confrontation has led to at least one big-ticket policy being scrapped and two ministers being arrested over allegations AAP claims are fake.

Officials aware of the development at the MHA denied Kejriwal’s allegations and said the approval had been held up because “the advertisement budget was larger than the infrastructure budget”.

Gahlot rejected this, accusing MHA officials of “spreading falsehoods”. “Nearly ₹22,000 crores have been allocated for capital expenditure next year, whereas the allocation for advertisements is only ₹550 crore, which is similar to that of last year. The concerns raised by MHA are irrelevant and seemingly done only to scuttle the budget for next year of Delhi government,” he said.

A person at the LG official said the clarifications were sought on four counts. The first related to what the LG apparently flagged as inadequate spending on capital expenditure.

The second was related to plans for subsidy as compensation to agencies with uneconomic recovery.

Third, the Delhi government had not implemented central schemes like Ayushman Bharat, which has put additional funds out of its reach.

Fourth, the budget estimate for spending by the information and publicity department was pegged at over ₹500 crore, against a spend of ₹272 crore in the current fiscal.

A retired Delhi assembly official, who asked not to be named, said that this was for the first time he had seen such a dispute. “The first budget was presented in 1993 and since then different governments have ruled Delhi and Centre on many occasions, but never before a controversy over budget approval was reported,” the official said.

According to the list of business released by the Delhi assembly on Monday evening, finance minister Gahlot was scheduled to present the annual budget of the Delhi government for financial year 2023-24 at 11am.

A senior Delhi government official said that the budget must be presented in the assembly before the end of the financial year otherwise the government will not be able to spend money on any activities including salary, social welfare schemes, and other expenses.