Pollution-control budget doubles, while environment spending tapers post-pandemic

Environment spending has slowed post pandemic

The government's spending on pollution control has doubled post-pandemic, while the environment, forest and climate change ministry’s budget has grown at a slower pace compared with the first six years of the National Democratic Alliance government under Prime Minister Narendra Modi, a Moneycontrol analysis has found.

While the government would likely have spent Rs 3,330 crore in 2024-25, analysis shows that the budget has grown at 5.6 percent per annum since 2019-20.

The growth has nearly halved from NDAs first term when the budget increased at a compounded annual growth rate of 9.7 percent.

Analysis shows that in five of the past 10 years, the budget for the ministry has contracted.

Capex spending has remained muted during the period. The government spent 5.3 percent of the ministry’s budget on capex in 2019-20, which declined to 1.5 percent by 2019-20.

The spending on capex has picked up again and was 2.8 percent of the ministry’s allocation in 2024-25.

Post-pandemic focus on pollution

Besides a shift in spending in the post-pandemic period, the nature of spending has also changed.

Pollution control occupies a more significant chunk of spending than it did in 2019-20, doubling over six years.

The government is expected to spend Rs 858.5 crore on pollution in FY25 compared with Rs 409 crore in 2019-20.

The share of pollution control in the budget spend has also grown from 16 percent in 2019-20 to 25.8 percent in 2024-25.

Pollution levels in the country have worsened. In 2024, Delhi did not witness even a single day of good air quality for the first time in six years.