X: @vivekbhavsar
Mumbai: In what amounts to a clear breakdown of budget planning, the Maharashtra government has sought approval for over ₹1.44 lakh crore in additional expenditure through three supplementary statements during a single financial year — 2025–26.
The supplementary demands, tabled across the monsoon, winter and budget sessions, point to a pattern in which large and predictable expenditures were either underestimated or omitted from the original budget, forcing repeated mid-year and end-year corrections.
The first supplementary statement was tabled on June 30, 2025, the opening day of the monsoon session, seeking approval for ₹57,509.71 crore. The government cited infrastructure spending, welfare schemes and preparations for the 2026–27 Nashik Kumbh Mela, with major allocations including ₹15,465 crore for urban development and ₹11,043 crore under the 15th Finance Commission grants.
Also Read: Ahead of March 6 Budget, State Seeks ₹11,995 Crore in End-Year Supplementary Funds
Just six months later, during the winter session in December 2025, the government returned to the Legislature with a far larger supplementary demand of ₹75,286.38 crore. This statement focused on farmer relief, welfare schemes and infrastructure, including ₹15,648 crore for flood-affected farmers, ₹9,250 crore for power subsidies, and ₹6,103 crore for the Ladki Bahin Yojana.
Now, with barely a month left before the end of the financial year and days ahead of the presentation of the 2026–27 Budget on March 6, the government has tabled a third supplementary statement, seeking approval for ₹11,995.34 crore more. This latest proposal includes major allocations for energy, water supply, health services and pension-related liabilities.
Taken together, the three supplementary statements total more than ₹1.44 lakh crore in additional expenditure sought outside the original budget in a single year.
While supplementary demands are constitutionally permitted, their frequency, scale and timing during 2025–26 raise serious concerns about fiscal forecasting and expenditure discipline. Large heads such as power subsidies, pensions, welfare schemes and disaster relief — all foreseeable spending items — have repeatedly resurfaced through supplementary routes instead of being adequately provided for in the annual budget.
The decision to seek nearly ₹12,000 crore in additional funds in the final weeks of the financial year, even as the next budget is being readied, underscores the extent to which the original budget has failed to function as a credible financial plan.
What emerges is not a story of unforeseen contingencies, but of a budget process increasingly reliant on post-facto legislative approvals to bridge gaps in estimation and planning.
With the next budget imminent, the cumulative reliance on supplementary demands during 2025–26 shifts the debate from individual spending priorities to a larger question confronting the Legislature: whether the annual budget still represents the government’s real spending intent, or merely a provisional document revised repeatedly through the year.
Explainer:
Supplementary demands are additional budgetary provisions sought by the government during the financial year when expenditure cannot be met from the original budget grants.
