Delhi Government Seeks Loan: The newly formed BJP government in Delhi has taken recourse to loans against small savings in the Budget it placed in the Assembly on Tuesday. The Delhi government seeks to borrow Rs 15,000 crore from the National Small Savings Fund (NSSF).
Previously, the AAP government, in its Budget Estimates for 2024-25, had proposed to take an NSSF loan of Rs 10,000 crore.
In November last year, the AAP government had written to the Union Ministry of Finance to borrow Rs 10,000 crore from the NSSF. The then CM Atishi had signed the proposal despite objections being raised by the state’s Finance Department which said Delhi needs to stop dipping into the NSSF.
As reported by The Indian Express earlier, Delhi’s Principal Secretary (Finance) Ashish Chandra Verma, in a note dated September 2 last year, is learnt to have objected to taking loans from the NSSF this fiscal, given the expected reduction in expenditure due to the MCC (Model Code of Conduct) coming into effect before the Assembly polls.
“In view of the hugely expanded interest liability, and the likelihood of reduced expenditure due to MCC, it is recommended to accept Scenario I (the option to quit from NSSF scheme),” Verma had noted. He had further said, “We are already six months into the current financial year and it can be estimated that 2-2.5 months will be taken up by the MCC for Delhi Assembly elections. This gives only 4-4.5 months for scheme expenditure on account of capital works.”
A major issue with the NSSF loan is that it is expensive (high-cost borrowing) and will leave future governments to deal with loan repayments worth thousands of crores, imposing a huge interest burden on them.
Only three other states — Arunachal Pradesh, Kerala and Madhya Pradesh — borrow from NSSF, which comprises collections under small saving schemes net of withdrawals by subscribers. Since these loans are more expensive than market borrowings, states generally decide to stay out.
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NSSF loans essentially fall under the category “loans from the Centre”. These, in turn, fall under “capital receipts”. Out of the 24,000 crore rise in Budget size this year when compared to last year, the rise in NSSF loans accounts for a fifth (20.8% or Rs 5,000 crore) of the increase.
From 2016-17 to 2021-22, NSSF loans received by the Delhi government rose from Rs 2,896 crore to almost Rs 11,000 crore.
In fact, the figure crossed Rs 10,000 crore thrice — from 2019-20 to 2021-22. In 2022-23, the Delhi government borrowed just Rs 3,721 crore. In 2023-24, no money was borrowed. In 2024-25, the AAP government sought Rs 10,000 crore from NSSF.
The other big rise compared to last year’s Budget is in non-tax revenue. Grants-in-aid (a part of Central Assistance) which are a component of non-tax revenue have risen (BE to BE) from
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Rs 4,391 crore to Rs 12,095 crore. This rise of Rs 7,704 crore accounts for 32% of the rise in this year’s Budget estimate.
In essence, an estimated increase in NSSF loans, along with an estimated rise in grants-in-aid, make up for 52% of the rise when last year’s Budget Estimate (Rs 76,000 crore) is compared to this year’s Budget Estimate (Rs 1 lakh crore).
Nirbhay Thakur is a Senior Correspondent with The Indian Express who primarily covers district courts in Delhi and has reported on the trials of many high-profile cases since 2023.
Professional Background
Education: Nirbhay is an economics graduate from Delhi University.
Beats: His reporting spans the trial courts, and he occasionally interviews ambassadors and has a keen interest in doing data stories.
Specializations: He has a specific interest in data stories related to courts.
Core Strength: Nirbhay is known for tracking long-running legal sagas and providing meticulous updates on high-profile criminal trials.
Recent notable articles
In 2025, he has written long form articles and two investigations. Along with breaking many court stories, he has also done various exclusive stories.
1) A long form on Surender Koli, accused in the Nithari serial killings of 2006. He was acquitted after spending 2 decades in jail. was a branded man. Deemed the “cannibal" who allegedly lured children to his employer’s house in Noida, murdered them, and “ate their flesh” – his actions cited were cited as evidence of human depravity at its worst. However, the SC acquitted him finding various lapses in the investigation. The Indian Express spoke to his lawyers and traced the 2 decades journey.
2) For decades, the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) has been at the forefront of the Government’s national rankings, placed at No. 2 over the past two years alone. It has also been the crucible of campus activism, its protests often spilling into national debates, its student leaders going on to become the faces and voices of political parties of all hues and thoughts. The Indian Express looked at all court cases spanning over two decades and did an investigation.
3) Investigation on the 700 Delhi riots cases. The Indian Express found that in 17 of 93 acquittals (which amounted to 85% of the decided cases) in Delhi riots cases, courts red-flag ‘fabricated’ evidence and pulled up the police.
Signature Style
Nirbhay’s writing is characterized by its procedural depth. He excels at summarizing 400-page chargesheets and complex court orders into digestible news for the general public.
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