BS@50: How money has moved between Centre and states in the past 5 decades

Annual government spending has shot up. Fiscal deficit concerns remain. Between the Centre and states, sometimes one has scored over the other. An overview of government finances since 1975

In 1975, the size of India’s annual government spending, incurred by the Centre, 22 states and eight Union Territories, was about Rs 15,690 crore. This was equivalent to about 20 per cent of India’s gross domestic product (GDP) that year. In the last 50 years, by 2023-24, not only has the number of states grown to 28, but the size of their annual spending along with that of the eight Union Territories and the Centre has also shot up to nearly Rs 90 trillion — that is over 30 per cent of India’s GDP.

That India’s government