Opposition flags ‘mountain of debt’, seeks white paper

Speaking on the government’s flagship Lado Laxmi Yojana, under which women aged 18 to 60 are being given an allowance of Rs 2,100 per month, Hooda said states has 82.5 lakh such women. “The total estimated allowance under the scheme for the entire year would be approximately Rs 20,790 crore). However, only Rs 6,500 crore has been allocated for the scheme. The budgetary allocation can only cover 31.25% of beneficiaries, meaning that approximately 67.5% of women have been excluded from the scheme or will not be able to benefit,” he claimed.

Hooda said while the the government has claimed that the budget outlay of Rs 2,23,658 crore was 9% more than the previous budget of Rs 2,05,017 crore for 2025-26. “However, due to the state’s inflation rate of approximately 5%, the actual increase is only around 4%”.

The former chief minister said that according to the budget document, the government is raising an internal debt of Rs 76,250 crore, while the debt repayment (principal Rs 36,101 crore + interest Rs 29,566 crore) totals Rs 65,667 crore. This leaves only Rs 10,593 crore for other expenditures.

“Rs 22,914 crore has been allocated for education, which is only 6.2% of the total budget. This represents only 1.9% of the GSDP, while the new education policy recommends spending 6% on education,” he said.

“Rs 14,007 crore has been allocated for health, which is only 6.2% of the total budget. According to the National Health Policy 2017, at least 8% of the budget expenditure should be devoted to health. Furthermore, this represents only 1.1% of the GSDP, while the policy requires 2.5%,” he added.

He said that the expenditure on agriculture is only 4.8% of the total budget, even though 70% of the state’s population depends on agriculture.

He further said that after debt repayments and various advance payments, only Rs 21,756 crore remains for capital expenditure, representing a mere 9.7% of the total budget.

Hooda said the BJP presented incomplete figures on per capita income. CM Saini, he said, stated how per capita income increased under the BJP government, but he did not mention how rapidly the per capita income grew under the Congress dispensation. “During the Congress government, per capita income jumped four-fold from approximately Rs 37,000 to approximately Rs 150,000. However, during the BJP’s 10 years, it only increased by two times. Had the per capita income increased at the same pace as it did during the Congress government, it would have been Rs 6-7 lakh today,” he said.

Citing the CAG report and budget documents, senior Congress leader Randeep Singh Surjewala alleged that Haryana’s debt burden has spiraled under BJP rule. “From 1966 to 2014 (48 years), the total debt was only Rs 70,925 crore while under BJP rule from 2015 to 2026–27 (12 years), more than Rs 3.94 lakh crore of new debt has been added.”

Surjewala added: “On average, Rs 27,000 crore is being borrowed every year, which means Rs 74 crore of debt is taken every single day. With a population of 2.80 crore in the state, this translates to more than Rs 1.40 lakh debt per person”.

Seeking a white paper on the debt burden, senior INLD leader Abhay Singh Chautala said: “About 30 per cent of the total budget will go into debt and interest repayment. Apart from this, if the expenses of employees’ salaries and pensions are deducted from the total budget, only a nominal amount will remain for the state’s development works.”

On the other hand, welcoming the budget proposals, senior BJP leader and former state finance minister Captain Abhimanyu said: “Special emphasis has been placed on education, healthcare, infrastructure development, industrial growth, and the expansion of digital services, thereby opening new avenues of progress for Haryana. This Budget will serve as a strong foundation for building a self-reliant and future-ready state.”