Amid Northeast fund row, what data from 22 Budgets show about UPA vs NDA spending
As per an analysis of Union Budgets between 2004-05 and 2025-26, the DoNER ministry under NDA used 66% of Northeast funds as compared to 95% utilisation during UPA.
DoNER fund utilisation has come under scrutiny after an analysis of 22 Union Budgets highlighted spending trends. (File Photo) In a recent letter to the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Home Affairs chairperson, Radha Mohan Das Agarwal, the Trinamool Congress’s Rajya Sabha MP Derek O’Brien flagged “persistent underutilisation” of funds allocated to the Ministry of Development of North Eastern Region (DoNER), citing schemes failing to reach the targeted number of beneficiaries in the region besides vacancies in the department.
An analysis of the Union Budgets shows that since the DoNER ministry was created — initially as a department in 2001 before it was made a full-fledged ministry in 2004 — it has reached or exceeded a 100% utilisation of allocated funds in just three years. Between 2004-05 and 2024-25 (the latest year for which actual outlays, rather than Budget or Revised Estimates, are available), the ministry has spent 74.7% of its Budget Estimate allocation and 82.66% of the Revised Estimates.
In 2024-25, the Union government allocated Rs 5,900 crore to the DoNER ministry, which was later revised to Rs 4,006 crore. The ministry’s actual spending, however, stood at Rs 3,371 crore or 57.1% of the amount originally allocated and 84.14% of the Revised Estimate.
But despite failing to completely utilise the sanctioned funds in 2024-25, the ministry was allocated Rs 5,915 crore in 2025-26 and Rs 6,812.3 crore in 2026-27, the most recent Budget. Already, the Revised Estimate for 2025-26 is down to Rs 4,479.2 crore, a reduction of Rs 1,435.8 crore from the Budget Estimate.
The highest utilisation of funds (actuals as a percentage share of the Budget Estimate) came in 2005-06 at 107.91%, followed by 102.71% in 2016-17 and 100.97% in 2007-08. In each of these years, however, the actual outlay fell short of the Revised Estimates.
The lowest utilisation of funds came in 2023-24, when the ministry spent Rs 1,637.9 crore following a Budget Estimate allocation of Rs 5,892 crore, for a utilisation rate of 27.63%. The next lowest utilisation came in 2022-23 at 35.36%, followed by 60.8% in 2020-21.
In a statement rebutting these findings, the DoNER ministry said, “The 2022-24 dip was structural, not chronic. The sharp decline in 2022-23 and 2023-24 had a documented, specific cause: transition to a new digital accounting and fund-transfer system in April 2022 disrupted claims processing cycles between the Centre and state implementing agencies; the new guidelines of Central fund release and expenditure introduced in March 2022 required state governments to switch over to the new system, which impacted expenditure figures temporarily in the years 2022-23 and 2023-24; the government approved the Scheme of PM-DevINE in 2022-23… The full operationalisation of the scheme took some time.”
The ministry added that Covid-19 and associated disruptions “slowed expenditure for nearly two years”.
A comparison of the 2004-05 figures to the latest available data shows that while the Budget Estimate of allocations to the ministry has grown by 470% over the past two decades and the Revised Estimates have grown by 274%, the actual expenditure by the ministry has trailed at 184% over the same period – an indication the ministry has struggled to spend its sanctioned outlays even after revising them.
Utilisation of funds by Ministry of Development of North Eastern Region.
Of the 22 Union Budgets between 2004-05 and 2025-26, for which Budget and Revised Estimates are available, the revised allocation for the ministry was reduced from the initial outlay in 12 years and remained unchanged in four years. The biggest decline between the Budget and Revised Estimates came in 2024-25 at a reduction Rs 1,894 crore; that year, the actual expenditure was 57.1% of the initial sanctioned outlay. Since 2009-10, the Revised Estimate was higher than the Budget Estimate in just 2016-17, where there was an increase of Rs 94.41 crore. Between 2004-05 and 2008-09, the Revised Estimate was an increase from the Budget Estimate every year.
However, since the ministry came into existence, its actual spending has always been lower than the Revised Estimate, dropping by as much as Rs 4,264 crore in 2023-24, when the utilisation percentage hit its record low.
However, the ministry in its statement said, “The utilisation question must begin with the correct denominator. Budget Estimate is an aspirational ceiling set at the start of the fiscal year. Revised Estimate – which accounts for actual project pipelines, state absorption capacity and mid-year corrections – is the operationally meaningful benchmark. Comparing actual expenditure against RE reveals a substantially different picture than comparing against BE.”
“The most complete measure of Central government investment in the North Eastern Region combines DoNER’s direct expenditure with the 10% Gross Budgetary Support (GBS) expenditure by all other ministries. This combined view shows an unambiguous, sustained, and accelerating upward trajectory across the entire 2004-2025 period,” the ministry added.
NDA vs UPA utilisation
Under the BJP-led NDA government since 2014, while the DoNER ministry’s sanctioned and actual outlays have grown much faster than under the previous Congress-led UPA regime, utilisation rates have dropped significantly.
Between 2004-05 and 2013-14, when the UPA was in power, the ministry was allocated a total of Rs 15,478 crore under the Budget Estimates and Rs 15,136 crore under the Revised Estimates, and ended up actually spending Rs 14,719 crore for a utilisation rate of 95.1% (as a share of the Budget Estimates) and 97.25% (as a share of the Revised Estimates).
In contrast, between 2014-15 and 2024-25, under the NDA government, the ministry was allocated a total Rs 36,107 crore under the Budget Estimates and Rs 31,503 crore under the Revised Estimates. But the ministry actually spent just Rs 23,830 crore, a utilisation rate of 66% (as a share of the Budget Estimates) and 75.64% (as a share of the Revised Estimates).
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