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With ₹78,800 crore Budget, Delhi plans mega infra push
The Delhi government on Wednesday presented a ₹78,800 crore Budget for financial year 2023-24 in the legislative assembly, with a mega infrastructure push featuring the expansion and beautification of 1,400km roads, new infrastructure projects, development of a better transport ecosystem, and a six-point action plan for cleaning the Yamuna besides clearing the Capital’s three garbage mountains within two years
The Delhi government on Wednesday presented a ₹78,800 crore Budget for financial year 2023-24 in the legislative assembly, with a mega infrastructure push featuring the expansion and beautification of 1,400km roads, new infrastructure projects, development of a better transport ecosystem, and a six-point action plan for cleaning the Yamuna besides clearing the Capital’s three garbage mountains within two years.
The theme of this year’s Budget was “Saaf Sundar aur Aadhunik Dilli” (clean, beautiful and modern Delhi). Since coming to power, the AAP has been presenting theme-based budgets, the first being “swaraj” (self-rule).
“A huge outlay for Capital expenditure of over ₹ 21,000 crore towards infrastructure projects presents a clear and a comprehensive plan to transform Delhi into a ‘clean, beautiful and modern city’ that every Indian can take pride in,” finance minister Kailash Gahlot said during his Budget speech.
Gahlot, who presented the Budget in a speech lasting two hours and 25 minutes, said the next year is going to be a significant one for Delhi as it will host India’s first G20 summit.
“We will be launching the largest effort in Delhi for upgradation and beautification of over 1,400km of the entire PWD road network, which forms the core network of roads in Delhi. From repairing and recarpeting the entire network of roads and footpaths to make them pedestrian-friendly, to ensuring end-to-end greening of unpaved areas adjoining the roads to initiating regular mechanical sweeping and washing of the entire road network, this project will transform how Delhi’s roads look,” said Gahlot.
Later, in a press conference, chief minister Arvind Kejriwal hailed the Budget as “excellent”, and said it has something for everyone. The CM added that the government’s focus on education, health, and power will continue besides all the free schemes like free electricity, water, and free bus rides for women.
“All surveys show that Delhi has the lowest inflation because the Delhi government gives many things for free -- electricity, bus rides, education, health,” Kejriwal said.
The Delhi government has earmarked ₹4,788 crore in 2023-24 so that all subsidies continue.
This was the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government’s ninth consecutive Budget; all the previous eight were presented by former deputy CM Manish Sisodia, who was arrested on February 26 in connection with the alleged excise scam. “We missed permanent finance minister Manish Sisodia, the entire Delhi missed him,” Kejriwal said. In his Budget speech, Gahlot made a reference to his jailed colleague Sisodia and hoped that he would come back soon and join the cabinet.
The infrastructure plan in the Budget envisages deployment of water sprinklers for better cleaning, regular paint jobs, electrification of all 57 bus depots, construction of three bus ports, increasing the number of public buses to 10,480 by 2025, introduction of mohalla (neighbourhood) buses for last-mile connectivity, 1,600 new electric buses, and 1,400 modern bus queue shelters, among other measures.
“The entire initiative of upgrading and beautifying Delhi’s roads is being planned with a 10-year horizon and with an anticipated expenditure of ₹19,466 crore. For the coming financial year, I propose ₹2,034 crore for this scheme,” said Gahlot. To be sure, many of these projects are not new, and some of them are already going on, such as the construction of double-decker flyovers, induction of electric buses, and others.
The Budget is proposed to be mainly financed from Delhi’s own resources — ₹53,565 crore from tax revenue, ₹1,050 crore from non-tax revenue, ₹10,000 crore from small saving loans, capital receipts of ₹ 622 crore, GST compensation of ₹3,802 crore, ₹3,167 crore from centrally sponsored schemes, ₹1,168 crore as normal central assistance and other central grants.
The government has allocated ₹16,575 crore for education and ₹9,742 crore for health, which have been the highest priority areas for the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) since it came to power. The government plans to open mohalla clinics at metro stations and add 96 additional mahila (women) mohalla clinics and proposes to increase beds in its hospitals from the existing 14,000 to 30,000. For transport, the government has allocated ₹9,031 crore, and for water supply and sanitation a budget allocation of ₹6,343 crore has been made. An amount of ₹3,348 has been allocated to the power department, one of the flagship units under the AAP government, thanks largely to the free power scheme.
“Delhi’s economy is now slowly emerging from the economic challenges of the Covid-19 pandemic. As a result, Delhi’s GSDP is likely to increase from ₹9,04,642 crore in the year 2021-22 to ₹10,43,759 crore in 2022-23 at prevailing market prices -- an increase of 15.38%. The real growth rate of Delhi’s GSDP in the year 2022-23 is likely to be 9.18%. Whereas at the national level, this growth rate is estimated to be 7%. This means that we are again attaining the level of pre-pandemic economic activity,” Gahlot said, adding that Delhi’s GSDP (gross state domestic product) expanded at 18.5% at current prices and 9.14% at constant prices during the year 2021-22.
Further explaining the economic scenario of the capital, Gahlot said the contribution of Delhi’s real GSDP to the national GDP is estimated to increase from 3.94% in 2011-12 to 4.09% in 2022-23 though the Capital accounts for just 1.53% of the country’s total population. “Delhi’s per capita income is likely to increase to ₹4,44,768 (per annum) at current prices in financial year 2022-23. In the year 2021-22, it was ₹3,89,529. This shows an increase of 14.18% in Delhi’s per capita income in 2022-23. Delhi’s per capita income for the year 2022-23 is almost 2.6 times higher than the national average of ₹1,72,000,” Gahlot said.
To be sure, a better comparative measure for per capita income is at constant prices. According to the Economic Survey tabled earlier this week, the per capita income at constant prices grew from 2,34,269 in FY21-22 to 252,024 in FY22-23, a jump of 7.4%.
However, the Delhi government cut its excise revenue projections from ₹9,500 crore in its 2022-23 Budget estimates to ₹6,500 crore according to the revised estimates, a likely impact of the 2021-22 excise policy being scrapped.
In the Budget estimates for 2023-24, the government has projected an excise revenue of ₹7,365 crore, which too is lower than the 2022-23 estimates.
On Wednesday, the finance minister credited the AAP government for “improving the state of Delhi’s economy in the last eight years through an innovative and progressive approach to governance.”
“The Budget is designed for public welfare and the Delhi government is committed to zero tolerance to corruption. The government has completed some key infrastructure projects in the past eight years which have transformed the outlook of the Capital. The Ashram flyover and underpass development has made movement of nearly 400,000 vehicles easy,” Gahlot said.
Leader of the Opposition Ramvir Singh Bidhuri said it was “a directionless and boring” budget that would take Delhi on the path of destruction.
“Of the budget of ₹78,800 crore, only ₹15,772 crore has been kept for the infrastructure schemes. Last year also only ₹16,271 crore was kept but in the revised budget it has been reduced to ₹13,335 crore,” Bidhuri said.
