Delhi unveils ₹1L-cr budget with double-engine thrust

Delhi chief minister Rekha Gupta on Tuesday tabled a bumper ₹1 lakh crore state budget for 2025-26, a 44% jump in the size, fuelled largely by central fund inflows to revive the Capital’s flagging infrastructure, solve its sanitation crisis, bolster health systems, and shore up the public transport fleet.

Gupta, who is also the finance minister, delivered a marathon 138-minute speech, littered with potshots at the previous Aam Aadmi Party (AAP)-led government and her predecessor Arvind Kejriwal, and punctuated with couplets by poets Mirza Ghalib, Bashir Badr and Harivansh Rai Bachchan.

“This is not an ordinary budget. This budget is not just an account of the government’s income and expenditure but is the first resolved step taken towards the development of Delhi, which has become miserable and worse in the last 10 years,” said Gupta.

“The double engine government will take New Delhi forward at the speed of a bullet train and Delhi will emerge as the ‘growth engine’ of the country,” she said, a reference to Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) governments at the Centre and the UT.

The 2025-26 budget estimate is 31.5% higher than the budget estimates (BE) in 2024-25 of ₹76,000 crore, and 44% higher than the revised estimates (RE) of ₹69,500 crore.

The budget will be financed by Delhi’s own tax and non-revenue of ₹68,700 crore and ₹750 crore, grants-in-aid from the central government of ₹12,096 crore ( ₹6,000 crore of which is for capital projects and ₹4,128 crore for centrally sponsored schemes), loans and advances from the central government of ₹15,380 crore, and the remaining amount from the opening balance.

In the 2024-25 budget estimate numbers, Delhi’s own tax revenue had a share of 77.3% of total budgetary spending. This number is now less than 69%.

According to budget documents, 72% of the proposed budget for 2025-26 has been allocated for revenue expenditure and 28% for capital expenditure.

Sectorally, education received the largest allocation (19.3%), followed by transport (12.95%), health (12.89%), housing and urban development (10.69%) and social welfare (10.59%).

“Our government will serve the people of Delhi and will not leave any stone unturned in its hard work, no matter what happens,” said Gupta.

Leader of opposition in the Delhi assembly and former chief minister Atishi said the budget was replete with “fake numbers” and “empty promises”.

Gupta pointed to 10 focus areas – infrastructure, health, cleaning the Yamuna, water, transport, culture, flood control, social security, power, and good governance.

The government set aside ₹5,100 crore for the Mahila Samriddhi Scheme, under which poor women have been promised ₹2,500 monthly allowances – one of the BJP’s key promises during the election campaign earlier this year.

“This move will help enhance women’s economic independence, decision-making capacity and self-esteem,” Gupta said.

The government allocated ₹12,952 crore for the development of public transport infrastructure, as the CM added that the administration will add more than 5,000 electric buses to the fleet, which already comprises 2,152 electric buses, by financial year 2025-26.

The government also allocated ₹1,000 crore towards improving Delhi’s connectivity with the National Capital Region (NCR), with the support of the Centre by launching infrastructure projects through funds available under Central Roads Fund (CRF) and Urban Development Fund (UDF), among others.

Apart from this, ₹3,843 crore was allocated to improve road and bridge infrastructure in the Capital.

“Prime Minister Narendra Modi also says that better infrastructure is about connecting dreams, accelerating progress. It means better infrastructure means connecting dreams and accelerating development,” said Gupta.

A significant portion of Gupta’s budget address was dedicated to the health sector, which was allocated ₹6,874 crore, with a special focus on setting up health and wellness centres, also known as Ayushman Arogya Mandirs.

She hit out at the AAP government and said, “The whole world knows that the ‘Ayushman Bharat’ scheme based on the vision of Prime Minister Narendra Modi is implemented in the entire country and millions of needy citizens have received direct benefit from it. But despite the continuous requests of the central government, this scheme was not implemented in Delhi only because the then chief minister was adamant that his name should be added to this scheme... The common people of Delhi had to bear the brunt of this stubbornness, who were given empty mohalla clinics in the name of health services.”

Of this, Gupta said, ₹100 crore was set aside to open 60 new CM Shri schools that will comply with the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020. An additional ₹100 crore has been allocated for smart classrooms, covering 7,000 classrooms across grades 9 to 12 in a phased manner, she said.

Gupta proposed a budget of ₹618 crore for various schemes under the technical education header for various universities in the Capital, and a further ₹500 crore to enable varsities such as Delhi Technical University and Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University to expand their campuses.

She also emphasised the need to overhaul the industrial sector and claimed that the BJP government will make Delhi the “most favourable hub for business and investment in the country”.

She announced the setting up of a new industrial policy and a warehousing policy to meet the huge need of industries. A single-window system will be introduced to give impetus to “ease of doing business”.

“This budget is not just an announcement of policies but a concrete road map to provide real relief to businessmen, investors and startups,” she said.

The government will set up a Trader Welfare Board, which will work on identifying and redressing the problems faced by traders in Delhi. The government will hold the first-ever Investment Summit in Delhi this year, which will be held every two years thereafter.

“Delhi has immense opportunities for various types of investments, especially in IT, banking, tourism, data storage, electronics. To take advantage of this opportunity, an Investment Summit has been planned this year, which will be held every two years thereafter,” she said.

The CM announced a state-level extension of the PM Surya Ghar: Free Electricity Scheme, aimed at promoting domestic solar panel installations through subsidies, and unveiled a ₹100-crore pilot project to shift overhead power cables across the city underground.

As part of a plan to improve Delhi’s air and water quality, the CM announced an outlay of ₹506 crore for the environment and forest departments. She added that six new air quality stations will be installed at strategic locations, allowing for wider coverage and data-driven decision making.

An infra push

In her speech, Gupta accused the previous government of letting Delhi slip on every scale of development. “Rickety roads, polluted Yamuna, sewer overflow, pathetic condition of health facilities and horrific stifling air due to air pollution – all these are clear evidence of the governance and policies of the previous government. The previous government has severely undermined the economy of Delhi. Delhi Jal Board is in loss, DTC is in loss, the corporation created for the upliftment of Dalits is closed, the department working for the development of slums is completely closed, broken roads, dirty water, flowing sewer, all these had become the identity of Delhi. In such a situation, we took charge of the government and running it is no less than a challenge,” Gupta said.

In a press conference after the budget was presented on Tuesday, Atishi, who is now the leader of the Opposition, questioned why the Economic Survey was not presented, and dubbed the BJP-led government’s budget “wishy-washy”.

“Today CM Rekha Gupta spent 1.5 hours in her two-hour speech just abusing AAP and Arvind Kejriwal. Perhaps she has not realised till now that elections are over, and that the BJP government has been formed. Now is the time to work not to abuse. But today she has once again made her real agenda clear – less work, more statements...,” said Atishi.

“The budget presented by the BJP government and CM Rekha Gupta ji is just a wishy-washy budget. It has no basis. Today we got to know why the government did not present the Economic Survey. This would have exposed the fake budget of the government.” she added

Gupta, meanwhile, claimed that the budget is a balanced one. “The budget aims to fly high in innovation and infrastructure, while ground realities like special allocation for the deprived, and model gaushala have also been taken care of. Overall, this budget has height as well as depth. Today’s budget is not just a document of figures, but the foundation stone of Delhi’s rebirth. Now every resource will be used in the interest of the citizens of Delhi, every policy will be made with transparency and accountability.”