Chief Minister Rekha Gupta’s second Budget for Delhi, presented on March 24, pegged the total outlay for 2026-27 at Rs.1,03,700 crore—a 3.7 per cent increase over the Rs.1 lakh crore budget she presented in 2025-26, shortly after the BJP came to power. That first budget had itself been a 31.6 per cent jump over the last budget of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government.

The Budget speech, which ran over two hours, returned repeatedly to the theme of a “triple engine government”—a reference to the BJP holding power at the Centre, in the capital, and leading in the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD). Gupta credited Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the Union government for what she called a change in the pace of Delhi’s development.

“Under the guidance of Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi, the visionary policies of the Centre and the rapidly progressing projects are yielding significant benefits to Delhi’s economy,” Gupta said.

The government expects to raise Rs.74,000 crore from its own tax revenue and Rs.900 crore from non-tax revenue. Rs.3,931 crore is to come from centrally sponsored schemes, Rs.591 crore from the Central Road Fund, and Rs.2,570 crore from Central grants. A further Rs.2,500 crore is expected from the Union Ministry of Tourism’s “Special Assistance to States for Capital Investment” scheme.

For the first time, the Delhi government will borrow from the open market. The budget estimates Rs.16,700 crore in market borrowings. Until recently, Delhi could not borrow independently because it did not have a separate public account. In January, the government signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Reserve Bank of India, enabling the RBI to function as Delhi’s banker, debt manager, and financial agent—an arrangement that brings the capital on par with other States.

The budget projects a revenue surplus of Rs.9,091.8 crore and a fiscal deficit of Rs.16,266.3 crore. Delhi’s Gross State Domestic Product reached Rs.12.13 lakh crore in 2024-25, registering growth of 8.9 per cent. It is expected to reach Rs.13.27 lakh crore in 2025-26, growing at 9.4 per cent, according to the budget documents. Per capita income in the capital has crossed Rs.five lakh, reaching Rs.5.3 lakh.

Capital spending, green claims, and welfare

A substantial portion of the budget—29.7 per cent, or Rs.30,799 crore—has been marked for capital expenditure. “For a decade, capital expenditure remained confined within a limited range of merely Rs.7,173 crore to Rs.15,864 crore, an amount insufficient for a metropolis like Delhi,” Gupta said. She added that her government had broken the trend by raising capital expenditure in 2025-26 to Rs.28,115 crore, a 145 per cent increase over the Rs.11,485 crore allocated in 2024-25.

The government has labelled the Budget a “Green Budget”, with 21.44 per cent of the total allocation—Rs.22,236 crore—directed at environmental protection and pollution control. This includes Rs.1,500 crore for cleaning the Yamuna, Rs.822 crore for the environment and forests sector, a Rs.300 crore scheme for pollution control and emergency measures, Rs.204 crore for the MCD’s pollution control efforts, and Rs.2 crore for pollution monitoring systems.

Education received the largest sector-specific allocation at Rs.19,326 crore, about 18.6 per cent of the total Budget. Health came next at Rs.13,034 crore, or about 12.6 per cent. Transport, roads, and bridges got Rs.12,613 crore; housing and urban development, Rs.11,572 crore; social welfare, Rs.10,537 crore; and water supply, Rs.9,000 crore. The BJP government did not deviate from the pattern under the previous AAP regime, which had also given education and health the highest allocations.

The Gupta government is continuing with subsidised electricity and has allocated Rs.3,500 crore towards the free electricity scheme. Among new welfare measures, Gupta announced free bicycles for schoolgirls entering Class IX in government schools, free laptops for meritorious students who have passed Class X, and free diagnostic tests for diseases in newborns. She also announced e-auto licences and subsidies for 1,000 women and allocated Rs.260 crore for free LPG cylinders during Holi and Diwali.

Unfulfilled promises and opposition fire

The Budget was shadowed by the election promise of a monthly allowance of Rs.2,500 to women and by changes to the free bus travel scheme for women. The Mahila Samriddhi Yojana, the scheme for the monthly payment, has not been rolled out. The government says the beneficiary criteria and mode of registration are being finalised. The Budget has allocated Rs.5,110 crore for the scheme and Rs.450 crore for free bus travel.

Under the previous system, women were issued pink tickets on government buses, with the cost borne by the government. Eligible women and members of the transgender community must now apply for Saheli smart cards to avail of the free rides.

The opposition AAP demanded an account of how the Rs.1 lakh crore budget announced the previous year had been spent. “There is a lack of transparency in both the current outlay and last year’s expenditure. The government has once again presented a hollow and imaginary budget. It is yet to account for how the funds were spent from the previous budget,” said AAP’s Delhi unit president Saurabh Bharadwaj. The party claimed the Gupta government was able to raise only Rs.68,700 crore and has placed Delhi under a debt of Rs.20,000 crore.

Bharadwaj contrasted the two regimes. “When Arvind Kejriwal passed a Rs.75,000 crore budget, 542 mohalla clinics were built, free electricity and 20,000 litres of free water were provided, world-class schools and hospitals were constructed, and senior citizens were sent on pilgrimage,” he said. “The present government has shut down pilgrimage schemes and mohalla clinics, stopped pensions for thousands, and cancelled eight lakh ration cards. Bus marshals, bus conductors, and hospital data entry operators have been removed from jobs. The government has cut down on its expenditure by doing all this, so where has the Rs 1 lakh crore gone?”

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