Budget: Law min gets Rs 14k cr for carry forward spending on LS polls, EVMs

The Union Budget 2025-26 has allocated more than Rs 1,400 crore to the law ministry to meet carry forward expenditure for holding the 2024 Lok Sabha elections and purchase of new electronic voting machines for the Election Commission.

The legislative department in the law ministry is the nodal agency for the Election Commission (EC), polls, electoral laws and appointment of members to the poll panel.

According to the Budget presented by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Saturday, the law ministry has been allotted Rs 500 crore for Lok Sabha elections, another Rs 300 crore for identity cards for voters, and Rs 597.80 crore for "other election expenses".

Separately, it has been allocated Rs 18.72 crore for the purchase of new electronic voting machines (EVMs) by the election watchdog.

One control unit, at least one ballot unit and one paper trail machine make up for an EVM.

Carry forward expenses have been described by law ministry officials as a "book keeping" exercise where funds are given to agencies to meet the money spent in holding elections.

In case of parliamentary polls, the entire sum is borne by the Central government, while expenditures for assembly polls are borne by the respective state governments.

The provision for EVMs is meant for providing funds to the Election Commission (EC) for the procurement of ballot units, control units and Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) units by the EC and ancillary expenditure on EVMs and destruction of obsolete EVMs.

EVMs have a life of 15 years following which they are destroyed under the supervision of EC's technical expert committee.

Announced in March last year, the Lok Sabha elections were held in seven phases in which nearly 97 crore people were eligible to vote.

Lok Sabha polls in the country have been described as the largest peace-time movement of personnel and equipment in the world.