Puducherry CM N Rangasamy presents Rs 13,600 cr 'tax-free' budget for fiscal 2025-26

Puducherry: Puducherry Chief Minister N Rangasamy on Monday presented a Rs 13,600 crore "tax-free" budget for the fiscal 2025-26 in the territorial assembly here on Wednesday.

He stated that due to the close cooperation and coordinated efforts between the Centre and the union territory, my government has been continuously implementing several progressive welfare schemes for the past four years, especially in education and health.

According to the CM, the union territory's own revenue receipts have been estimated at Rs 7,641,40 crores. Central assistance, including state disaster relief fund has been estimated at Rs 3,432.18 crores. The central road fund is Rs 25 crores and allocation under centrally sponsored scheme has been estimated as Rs 400 crores.

The central government had conveyed its approval for net borrowing ceiling (NBC), including negotiated loan to the extent of Rs 2,101.42 crores to bridge the gap of the fiscal deficit.

He also said, of the budget estimate of Rs 13,600 crores, a sum of Rs 11,624.72 crores had been allocated for Revenue Expenditure and Rs 1,975.28 crores had been allocated for capital expenditure.

The percentage of capital expenditure against the total expenditure had been considerably increased to 9.80 per cent in the proposed budget for the fiscal 2025-26 as compared to only 1.66 per cent in the year 2021-22, which is almost a 10 fold increase.

Expressing his gratitude to Prime Minister Narendra Modi for his continuous support, the CM highlighted that this marks his fifth successive budget in the current 15th Legislative Assembly.

He also announced an allocation of Rs 2,760 crores towards special budgeting components in the current financial year, which comprise Rs 1,458 crore for gender budgeting, Rs 613 crores for youth initiatives and Rs 689 crores for green projects.

"A major portion of our financial resources go towards committed expenditure such as salary, pension, repayment of loan and interest payments," he added.