Hry budget: Focus on women, AI but dip in capex a worry

₹5,000 cr allocated for Lado Lado Lakshmi Yojana; revenue target of ₹68k cr set for excise & taxation dept

- Hitender Rao

CHANDIGARH: Proposing an ambitious budget outlay of about ₹2.05 lakh crore for the 2025-26 financial year, Haryana chief minister Nayab Singh Saini on Monday presented his maiden budget estimates in the state assembly.

The budget outlay of ₹2.05 lakh crore (₹2,05,017.29 crore) was about 8% higher than the ₹1.89 lakh crore (₹1,89,876.61 crore) presented by Saini's predecessor Manohar Lal Khattar, while presenting the 2024-25 budget estimates last year. The state government, however, fell short of the proposed mark and had to make a climb down to revise its budget outlay to ₹1.80 lakh crore (₹1,80,313.57 crore) for 2024-25 fiscal.

The CM who also hold the finance portfolio, however, told the House during his budget address that the proposed total budget of ₹2,05,017.29 crore for 2025-26 financial year reflected a 13.7% increase over the revised estimates of ₹1,80,313.57 crore for 2024-25 fiscal.

As has happened in the past couple of years, the proposed capital expenditure yet again saw a dip in 2025-26 budget estimates at ₹16,164.11 crore as compared to what Khattar had committed --₹16,280.94 crore--in the 2024-25 estimates. The state government could actually only spend ₹12,752.52 crore on asset creation in 2024-25. Capital expenditure is the money spent by the government on creation of long-term assets like infrastructure projects, roads, bridges, educational institutions, health care facilities, and for undertaking development works.

Exclusion criteria to be worked out for Lado Lakshmi