The Delhi government was allocated Rs 100 crore more in the Union Budget 2025-26 presented in the Parliament on Saturday compared to FY 2024-25, even as the Aam Aadmi Party termed it a "major disappointment".
Delhi received Rs 1,348 crore as compared to Rs 1,248.01 crore in the current fiscal. The transfers include grants in aid of Rs 968.01 crore under the revenue head and Rs 380 crore as loans and advances under the capital head. In the 2024-25 budget, Delhi received Rs 280 crore as loans and advances.
The Aam Aadmi Party, which is looking to retain power in Delhi in the February 5 Assembly polls, termed the Budget of the BJP-led Central government a "major disappointment". In a statement, it stated that the middle class, in particular, has been "deceived" as there is no relief on GST or home loans.
The AAP government has been at the loggerheads with the Centre over budgetary allocations for it for years, demanding more share from the central pool of taxes, citing high income tax paid by people in Delhi.
AAP national convener Arvind Kejriwal said he was disappointed that his suggestion to end loan waiver for billionaires and spend the saved money on the middle class and farmers was not met in the Union budget 2025-26.
Reacting to the budget, Kejriwal wrote on X that a large portion of the nation's treasury is spent on waiving off the loans of a handful of billionaire industrialists. "I had demanded that the budget announce that no billionaire's loans will be waived in the future. The money saved from this should be used to provide relief on middle-class home and vehicle loans and waive off farmers' debts. Income tax and GST rates should be halved. I am saddened that this was not done," Kejriwal stated. "I am disappointed this was not done," he said in the post.
Presenting her eighth straight Budget in the Lok Sabha, Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman laid out a blueprint for "next-generation" reforms, including raising the FDI limit in the insurance sector and simplification of tax laws. In a relief to the middle class, Sitharaman exempted annual income of up to Rs 12 lakh from income tax and rejigged tax slabs as part of her Budget.
Meanwhile, senior AAP leader and Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh stated that Arvind Kejriwal had demanded that the government declare it would no longer waive off industrialists’ loans.
He also pointed out that the Modi government has waived Rs 16 lakh crore worth of loans for its corporate friends, and that money should be recovered. “If this money were recovered, income tax and GST rates could be halved.
