BUDGET SPEND CHECK: MORE UNDERSHOOTING

On the first day of February, the nation tunes it for the Union budget, parsing how the finance minister allocates limited resources to meet huge public expectations. Here, we won't go into whether it met expectations or not, but rather how the government and its 50-plus ministries adhere to their spending targets. The results are mostly underwhelming. A Mint analysis comparing budgeted outlays with actual expenditure between FY10 and FY26, excluding the pandemic years of FY21 and FY22, shows several ministries and flagship schemes faced sharp spending compression toward the end of the fiscal years, with the squeeze tightening as the government walked a narrow fiscal tightrope.

- BY NANDITA VENKATESAN

WIDER AND DEEPER

FRONT-LOADING allocations for key ministries at the start of the fiscal year is routine. So is the severe undershooting by the year-end.

Data available since 2009-10 shows that roughly a quarter of the ministries (of 53 listed by government) have, on average, spent less than 80% of their budgeted allocations. The worrying part is that the trend has become wider and more severe in recent years. Between FY23 and FY25, 12-13% ministries spent less than 50% of their funds, compared with 2-3% ministries on average in the decade preceding the pandemic. By FY25, nearly half used less than 80% of the amount. FY26 revised estimates indicate some improvement, though the figures are provisional. Actual expenditure will only be known after the provisional data release in May and the final spending figures in the 2027 budget.

The government showed stronger utilization ratios in the years prior to the pandemic, when only 10-16% ministries had undershot allocations by over 20%.

USUAL SUSPECTS

WHILE SPENDING cuts have become sharper, each year reveals a different set of ministries that lag against the budget aim.

There are some usual suspects that have lagged more often than not—ministries that spent less than 60% of their outlay in at least two of the last four fiscal years.