Till Dec, Ministries Used Up Only 68% Of Revised Budget Allocation

A large number of Union ministries had utilized only about two-thirds of their revised budgetary allocations for 2023-24 in the first nine months of the financial year.

- Rhik Kundu

The actual total expenditure between April and December was 30.41 trillion, against the revised allocation of ₹44.90 trillion for 56 ministries, the Union finance ministry said in a statement in response to questions in the Rajya Sabha last week.

Among those with large allocations, the railways, and road transport and highways ministries utilized up to 85% of their allocations, and the defence ministry about 71%.

The ministry of railways, which was allocated ₹2.43 trillion for FY24 as per the budget's revised estimate, had spent 2.08 trillion till 31 December.

The ministry of road transport and highways spent 12.28 trillion of its 2.76 trillion allocation.

But other ministries used up far less.