Central fund transfers to Punjab down 14% in first quarter: CAG
Belying the Centre’s claims of sending thousands of crores to Punjab, a comparison of the latest fiscal indicators for the first quarter of 2026, with the corresponding period last year, has revealed that the funds received from the Central Government were actually down by 14 per cent.
The fiscal indicators for April-May 2026, put out by the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India reveals that the share of union taxes and the grants-in-aid and contribution received by the Punjab Government was Rs 5,764.26 crore. Comparatively, the share of union taxes and the grants-in-aid and contribution received during the first quarter of 2025 was Rs 6,701.62 crore.
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Data reveals that the share of union taxes received by the state in the first quarter of 2026-27 has reduced to Rs 5,256.21 crore, as compared to Rs 5,907.88 crore received between April and June 2025. Similarly, the grants-in-aid and contributions have reduced from Rs 793.74 crore last year to Rs 508.05 crore this year.
From 2022, the share of taxes and the grains-in-aid and contributions received by the state from the Centre, is the lowest this year.
According to data, the central devolutions in the first quarter of 2022 was Rs 10,890.83 crore; Rs 6,271.08 crore in 2023; Rs 6,522.63 crore in 2024 and Rs 6,701.62 crore in the same period of 2025. “While the state’s own base of revenue receipts has shown an increase, the central devolutions have proportionately come down,” said an officer of the Finance Department, Punjab.
Interestingly, the latest fiscal indicators also show some other interesting trends over the first quarter of 2025. The revenue receipts are going up, on both tax revenue and non-tax revenue count; the market borrowings are much lower and the revenue expenditure too seems to have been curtailed a bit, as it is down from Rs 30,376.93 crore last year to Rs 30,074.28 crore between April and June this year.
Though salary, pension and interest payments have all increased from last year, the expenditure is down mainly because the subsidy bill of the state is down by Rs 2,890.88 crore. This may be because of the backlog in clearing the power subsidy.
All this has led to the revenue deficit of the state coming down from Rs 7,978.70 crore in April to June 2025 to Rs 2,612.62 crore in the same period this year.
