Interest payments up 11 pc to 25.6 pc of total expenditure

Chennai: Interest payments on loans availed by the government is projected to go up by 11 per cent and account for 25.6 per cent of the total expenditure, as per the Budget.

The Budget finds that the interest payments are estimated to be Rs 13.15 lakh crore, having gone up from Rs 11.85 lakh crore in the revised Budget of FY25.

Interest payments account for 25.6 per cent of the total expenditure of Rs 50.65 lakh crore. As per the revised estimate, interest payment of Rs 11.85 lakh crore was 25.1 per cent of the total expenditure of Rs 47.16 crore.

Grants-in-aid, consisting of grants to state governments, has been projected to be Rs 7.2 lakh crore, up from Rs 6 lakh crore in the revised estimate. Of this, grants to state governments are estimated to be Rs 6.5 lakh crore.

Pensions of Rs 2.77 lakh crore was marginally higher than Rs 2.70 lakh crore in the revised estimates.

Expenditure on agriculture and allied activities at Rs 3.71 lakh crore was marginally down from Rs 3.76 lakh crore. Transport expenditure, which includes railways, roads, ports, shipping and aviation, is another major constituent in expenditure at Rs 3.1 lakh crore, having increased from Rs 3 lakh crore in the revised estimate.

Among revenue receipts of Rs 38.35 lakh crore, the government believes to garner Rs 11.8 lakh crore from GST against Rs 10.6 lakh crore in the revised estimate. Income from corporation tax is estimated to go up from Rs 9.8 lakh crore to Rs 10.8 lakh crore and revenue from income tax is projected to go up from Rs 11.9 lakh crore to Rs 13.5 lakh crore.