Govt spends just 40% of budgeted funds on major schemes in first nine months: Report

Taken together, the original budget estimates for the 53 schemes exceeded Rs 5 lakh crore, but revised allocations have been pared down to less than Rs 3.8 lakh crore, or about 74 percent of the initial outlay.

• Gov't released just 41% of flagship scheme funds in first 9 months
• Revised allocations for 53 major schemes cut to 74 percent of original budget
• Some schemes saw fund releases below 10 percent of their original allocations

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Government spending on its largest flagship schemes has reportedly remained sharply below allocations this year, with barely 40 percent of the budgeted amount released in the first nine months and total utilisation now expected to stay under 75 percent by the close of the financial year.

An analysis of 53 major schemes, each with a budget estimate of Rs 500 crore or more for 2025–26, shows widespread downward revisions and slow fund releases, states a report by the Times of India.

Of the 53 schemes, only three saw their revised estimates remain unchanged from the original budget allocations: infrastructure maintenance under the health and family welfare ministry, the Indira Gandhi National Widow Pension Scheme, and the pre-matric scholarship programme for Scheduled Castes.

These schemes are implemented primarily by states and financed jointly by the Centre and state governments under prescribed sharing formulas.

Spending overshot original projections in just three programmes.

Revised allocations exceeded budget estimates for the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS), post-matric scholarships for Scheduled Tribes, and the National Mission on Natural Farming.

For the remaining 47 schemes, allocations were scaled back, often substantially. The steepest reduction was recorded in the Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchayee Yojana, where the revised allocation was cut to Rs 150 crore from an original Rs 850 crore.

Taken together, the original budget estimates for the 53 schemes exceeded Rs 5 lakh crore, but revised allocations have been pared down to less than Rs 3.8 lakh crore, or about 74 percent of the initial outlay.

Actual fund releases between April and December amounted to just over Rs 2 lakh crore, representing 41.2 percent of the budgeted amount and 55.4 percent of the revised estimates.

Several schemes witnessed particularly sharp cutbacks, with revised allocations dropping below 40 per cent of their original budgets.

These include PMKSY–Command Area Development and Water Management, PM eBus Sewa, Dharti Aaba Janjatiya Gram Utkarsh Abhiyan, the Jal Jeevan Mission/National Rural Drinking Water Mission, computerisation of primary agricultural credit societies, and the state and Union Territory component of Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (Urban). In six of these cases, fund releases so far are below 10 percent of the original budget.

Among high-value schemes with budget allocations exceeding Rs 2,000 crore, spending has been especially limited. The Jal Jeevan Mission/National Rural Drinking Water Mission, budgeted at Rs 67,000 crore, saw releases of only Rs 31 crore in the first nine months. PM Schools for Rising India recorded spending of Rs 473 crore against a budget of Rs 7,500 crore, while the Pradhan Mantri Anusuchit Jaati Abhyuday Yojana utilised just Rs 40 crore of its Rs 2,140-crore allocation.