Govt to use almost entire FY 2025-26 borrowings for capex: Nirmala Sitharaman in Lok Sabha

The government is using almost the entire borrowing in 2025-26 towards financing capital expenditure, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said on Tuesday.

She said the effective capital expenditure in FY'26 is ₹15.48 lakh crore, which is 4.3% of GDP. The fiscal deficit target is 4.4% of the GDP for next fiscal.

"It indicates that the government is using almost the entire borrowed resources for financing effective capital expenditure. So the borrowings are not going for revenue expenditure or committed expenditure, or any of those kinds.

“It's going only for creating capital assets. So, in effect, the government intends to use about 99 per cent of borrowed sources to finance effective capital expenditure in the upcoming year," she said in the Lok Sabha.

Replying to a discussion on General Budget 2025-26, Sitharaman said the Budget has come in a time of immense uncertainties, changes in the global macro-economic environment, stagnating global growth and sticky inflation.

The world's scenario in the last 10 years turned 180 degrees, and making Budget is more challenging now than ever before, she said, adding Budget balances national development necessities with fiscal priorities: Sitharaman said inflation trend, particularly food, appears to be moderating.

"Inflation management receives the highest priority of this government. Overall, retail inflation is within the notified tolerance band of 2-6%," Sitharaman said.

On the weakening of the rupee against the US dollar, the minister said various global and domestic factors are influencing the value of the rupee against the US dollar.

The Indian rupee has depreciated 3.3% against the US dollar between October 2024 and January 2025, but the decline has been lower than that in some of its Asian peers.

South Korean Won and Indonesian Rupiah depreciated by 8.1% and 6.9%, respectively in this period. Further, all G-10 currencies also depreciated during this period by more than 6% with Euro and British Pound depreciating by 6.7% and 7.2%, respectively.

Sitharaman also said there has been no cut in transfer to states and ₹25.01 lakh crore will be transferred in FY'26.