Govt caps MGNREGS spend for H1FY26

FOR THE FIRST time, the government has capped spending under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) at 60% of its annual allocation for the first half of FY26, it has been learnt.

- HARIKISHAN SHARMA

Until now, the rural jobs guarantee scheme has operated as a demand-driven programme with no such spending limit.

It is learnt that the ministry of finance has informed the ministry of rural development that it will now be brought under the monthly/quarterly expenditure plan (MEP/QEP), a spending control mechanism from which it had been exempt so far.

The finance ministry introduced the MEP/QEP in 2017 to help ministries manage cash flow and avoid unnecessary borrowing.

MGNREGS remained outside its scope until now, with the rural development ministry arguing that the scheme's demand-driven nature made fixed spending caps unworkable. But at the start of FY26, the finance ministry is learnt to have directed the MoRD to include MGNREGS under the MEP/QEP framework as well.