Shimla, March 19 The Himachal Pradesh Legislative Assembly passed a supplementary budget amounting to Rs 40,461.95 crore for the year 2025-26 on Thursday.
Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu presented the supplementary demands for the year 2025-26 in the Assembly, and the budget was passed through a voice vote.
The supplementary budget included Rs 36,374.61 crore under state schemes and Rs 4,087.34 crore for centrally-sponsored schemes.
Under the state schemes, Rs 26,194.95 crore has been earmarked for "Ways and Means" and overdraft, Rs 4,150.14 crore has been allocated for power generation and for converting loans provided to the Electricity Board under the UDAY scheme into equity.
Additionally, Rs 818.20 crore is for natural disaster relief, Rs 785.22 crore for water supply and sewerage schemes, and Rs 657.22 crore for Himcare, the Sahara Scheme, robotic surgery facilities at the Medical Colleges, establishment of advanced testing laboratories, and procurement of PET scanners, construction works of Medical College and hospitals, and providing power supply to AIIMS Bilapsur.
Under the Special Central Assistance, Rs 555.89 crore has been earmarked for projects, including shopping complexes at the vegetable market, bus stand, flyover, and underground utility duct.
Furthermore, an allocation of Rs 453.63 crore has been made for road maintenance, bridges, construction of rural roads, and compensation, while Rs 443.33 crore is for subsidies to the Himachal Road Transport Corporation in place of fare concessions provided to various categories of passengers.
Additionally, Rs 192.20 crore has been allocated for road construction and the procurement of machinery and equipment for the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) Battalion Headquarters in Behna (Mandi).
Under Centrally Sponsored Schemes, the majority of the funds are proposed for ongoing and new development projects for which financial assistance was received from the Central government during the current year, which includes Rs 2,453.97 crore for disaster management, Rs 688.40 crore for the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana, and Rs 352.18 crore as compensation for persons displaced by the Renukaji Dam project.
Last year on March 17, CM Sukhu had presented a Rs 58,514-crore Budget for the financial year 2025-26 with a focus on tourism, rural development, and green energy.
The supplementary budget has completely undermined the Chief Minister's three favourite catchphrases -- "Fiscal Prudence, Fiscal Management, and Fiscal Discipline", as well as his promise of "Vyavastha Parivartan" (change in system), said Leader of the Opposition Jai Ram Thakur.
Talking to the media here, he said that the supplementary budget, constituting 70 per cent of the total outlay, serves as a certificate of the government's economic failure.
An additional expenditure of 70 per cent indicates that the government lacked confidence in its own figures, and the government should explain that from where this additional funding will come from, he said and added that the government has not made documents of the supplementary budget available.
Later, Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu said the supplementary budget figure increased because the government had taken a loan under Ways and Means following the discontinuation of RDG to save the people from hardships. The loan was taken and returned.
He said the 2025-26 Budget has not gone up to Rs 98,000 crore. The government has shown all its expenditure and receipts in the supplementary budget. "If our Budget had increased to Rs 98,000 crore, the state would have become self-dependent," Sukhu added.