Having missed the target for the current financial year, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Saturday proposed to spend Rs 11.21 lakh crore towards capital expenditure (capex) for FY26.
However, the capex target is going to be missed by about 93,000 crore for the current financial year.
Against the Budget estimates of Rs 11.11 lakh crore for capex, the government is expected to spend Rs 10.18 lakh crore in Revised Estimates for FY25.
“The Revised Estimate of the total receipts other than borrowings is Rs 31.47 lakh crore, of which the net tax receipts are Rs 25.57 lakh crore.
“The Revised Estimate of the total expenditure is Rs 47.16 lakh crore, of which the capital expenditure is about Rs 10.18 lakh crore (FY25),” she said while presenting the Union Budget for FY26.
The shortfall in capex is attributed to 2024 being an election year resulting in no activity for 2-3 months. So, there was limited activity for one quarter due to this.
The government had hiked capex by 37.5 per cent to Rs 10 lakh crore for FY24.
Against this, the government expected to spend Rs 9.5 lakh crore in the financial year ending March 2024.
In the previous two years as well, the government had to increase the capex for infrastructure development by over 30 per cent to do heavy lifting as private investment was muted.
Post-COVID-19, the Budget has been laying special emphasis on capex. It has kick-started a dormant cycle for the economy.
As a result, India has witnessed over 7 per cent growth in the last three years, the highest among the large economies of the world.
During 2020-21, the government earmarked Rs 4.39 lakh crore which increased by 35 per cent to Rs 5.54 lakh crore in the subsequent year.
Another 35 per cent hike in capex was done in 2022-23 to Rs 7.5 lakh crore which subsequently reached a high of Rs 10 lakh crore, an increase of 37.4 per cent.
