Delhi govt 'doubles' capex, keeps Rs 5.1K crore for women payouts

Gupta, who also holds the finance portfolio, highlighted that she has doubled capital expenditure to Rs 28,000 crore

Delhi Chief Minister Rekha Gupta on Tuesday presented a ₹1 lakh crore (one trillion) Budget for FY26, and this outlay for the Union Territory (UT) is a 31.57 per cent increase over that in the previous year.

 

For FY25, the Budget, presented by the government run by the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), had an outlay of ₹76,000 crore.

 

In the newly elected Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government’s first Budget, Gupta, who holds the finance portfolio, highlighted that she had doubled capital expenditure to ₹28,000 crore. She said her government would focus on infrastructure development, the cleaning of the Yamuna, and women’s economic empowerment.

 

The chief minister said the ₹1 lakh crore would be financed from the tax revenue of ₹68,700 crore, non-tax revenue of ₹750 crore, small savings of ₹15,000 crore, central road fund of ₹1,000 crore, centrally sponsored schemes of ₹4,128 crore, grants-in-aid from the Centre of ₹7,348 crore and the rest from the opening balance.

 

Gupta said the Budget had allocated 72 per cent for revenue and 28 per cent for capital expenditure.

 

The Budget has allotted ₹6,874 crore for the health sector (down from ₹8,685 crore in 2024-25 Budget), including the setting up of health and wellness centres and expanding the Ayushman Arogya Mandir initiative. It has provided ₹12,952 crore for the transport sector, up from ₹9,337 crore (2024-25 Budget) and ₹5,100 crore has been earmarked for the ₹2,500 monthly allowance to eligible women, a key election plank of the BJP.

 

The Budget set aside ₹10 crore for a site on the outskirts of the UT to relocate the Tihar Jail complex.

 

Leader of Opposition Atishi, who as the UT’s finance minister presented the FY25 Budget, accused the BJP government of “deliberately” not presenting the Economic Survey before the Budget.

 

“If the government truly had ₹1 lakh crore in revenue, it wouldn’t have hesitated to present the Economic Survey in the Assembly. They hid it because the numbers would expose the truth behind this hollow Budget,” she said.

 

Atishi said the government’s Budget had cut allocations for essential sectors like education, health, and municipal services, saying the Budget revealed the government’s “intent to weaken public services”.

 

“For the first time in 10 years, the education Budget has fallen below 20 per cent (of the total), showing their (the BJP’s) agenda to destroy government schools. Health spending has also been cut to 13 per cent — the lowest in a decade — to dismantle free treatment for the poor,” she said. 

 

Atishi, who was chief minister of Delhi, said the allocation, of ₹8,423 crore, to the Municipal Corporation of Delhi in 2024-25 had been slashed to ₹6,897 crore this year, calling it an attempt to “cripple the city’s cleaning system”.

 

During its election campaign for the Delhi Assembly polls, the BJP had flagged that the AAP government, headed first by Arvind Kejriwal and then Atishi, failed to invest in the UT’s infrastructure. During the AAP government’s tenure, revenue expenditure increased sharply, reaching 80 per cent of the total expenditure in the 2024-25 Budget Estimates, and had peaked at 82.5 per cent in 2017-18. Welfare initiatives, such as subsidised electricity and improved health care and education, meant capital outlay fell to single digits as a percentage of total expenditure. It reached a mere 7.06 per cent in 2018-19, and hovered at that level in 2024-25.

 

In her 138-minute speech, Gupta slammed the AAP government for gnawing into the economic health of the city like “termites”. She said the Budget had allocated ₹500 crore for Yamuna cleaning, ensuring that only treated water entered the river through the decentralisation of 40 sewage treatment plants (STPs). Additionally, ₹500 crore has been earmarked for the repair and upgrade of STPs, and ₹250 crore for replacing old sewer lines.

 

Gupta said the government would bring policies on industry and warehouses.

 

A Traders’ Welfare Board will be established and Delhi will host a “Global Investment Summit” every two years. The budget has allocated ₹50 crore for skill development programmes, including bee-keeping. It also proposed that Delhi would host an “International Film Festival” and allocated ₹30 crore for it.