Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Tuesday categorically denied allegation by States that if any State is not named in the Budget speech, then it does not get any budgetary allocation.

“I have been picking up on Budget speeches since 2004-2005, 2005-2006, 2006-2007, 2007-2008 and so on. The Budget of 2004-2005 did not take the name of 17 States. I would like to ask the members of the UPA government at that time — did money not go to those 17 States? Did they stop it?,” the Minister said during the discussion on General Budget in Lok Sabha on Tuesday.

She was responding to comments by several Opposition members that the Budget has provided funds only to Bihar and Andhra Pradesh and nothing to other States. “No State is being denied any money. We are not depriving any State,” she said.

Budget highlights

Sitharaman said that India is the fastest-growing economy globally and has overcome the after-effects of the pandemic due to heavy capex push. “Government is complying with the fiscal deficit trajectory. It will bring down the deficit to below 4.5 per cent by 2025-26 from the targeted 4.9 per cent for the current fiscal. The deficit was 5.6 per cent in 2023-24,” she said.

The Minister emphasised that the FY25 Budget has not given lesser allocation to any sector compared to last year. Agriculture had 0.30 lakh crore in 2013-14, whereas now it has 1.52 lakh crore. It is 8,000 crore more than last year. Education and employment had 0.85 lakh crore allotted in 2013-14, whereas this year it is 1.48 lakh crore — a 23 per cent more allocation.

“The Budget allocation for the department of agriculture and farmers’ welfare was only ₹21,934 crore in 2013-2014. However, in 2024-2025, it has increased to ₹1.23 lakh crore. There’s a five times increase. More than ₹3.2 lakh crore have been disbursed to over 11 crore farmers under PM Kisan since its launch,” she said.

Talking about the Budget for Jammu and Kashmir, she said that the unemployment rate for age group of 15-59 years has actually come down for the Union Territory, from 6.4 per cent in 2020-21 to 5.7 per cent in 2021-22 to 4.4 per cent in 2022-23. “The Budget has provided substantial financial support of ₹17,000 crore to the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir this year. It includes ₹12,000 crore towards financing the cost of J&K police,” she said while adding that that was the burden government want to take on its shoulders.

With this, the Lok Sabha cleared Part A of the Union Budget, along with the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir, with a voice vote. The relevant appropriation bills were also passed by the House. Now there will be debate on the Finance Bill which will then be taken up for consideration and passage next week.