State Budgets for 2018-19 show a healthy recovery on fiscal deficit front

The combined size of the Budgets presented by 29 states of India is now at least 37 per cent more than the Union Budget. Compared to the Union Budget size of Rs 24.42 trillion for 2018-19, the states’ budget size for the current year is estimated at about Rs 33.59 trillion.

Just seven years ago, in 2011-12, the Union Budget size was bigger than the state Budgets. But since then, the combined size of the state Budgets has been growing rapidly. Last year it was 36 per cent more than the Union Budget and in 2014-15, the first year of