Telangana Budget 2025-26 likely in March, local body polls take priority

The delay in the departmental consultations is being attributed to the Congress government's plans to focus on the ongoing MLC polls, followed by the local body elections

Hyderabad: The Telangana State Budget for 2025-26 is expected to be presented in March, with the Congress government prioritising local body elections scheduled after February 15. This marks a shift from the recent practice of presenting the Budget in February, reverting to the earlier tradition of the March presentation.

The State has the flexibility to present its Budget before March 31 for the next financial year, and the exercise was traditionally conducted in the second or third week of March. However, following the Union Budget‘s move to early February, Telangana has been aligning its schedule accordingly for the last couple of years.

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Despite the approaching deadline, Budget preparations appear to be moving slowly at the ministerial level. Since December, Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy held only one review meeting, and Deputy Chief Minister and Finance Minister Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka is yet to convene departmental consultations. Officials, however, have reportedly completed the initial Budget drafting and are awaiting final reviews.

The delay in the departmental consultations is being attributed to the Congress government’s plans to focus on the ongoing MLC polls, followed by the local body elections. Amid growing criticism, the Chief Minister is learnt to be keen to win all three MLC seats and a majority of local body elections, including gram panchayats, MPPs (Mandal Praja Parishads) and ZPPs (Zilla Praja Parishads), to prove his strength within the party and outside as well, prompting him to focus on political issues and regular administration.

A senior Finance Department official confirmed that while the technical work was done, the Budget would be refined after further review meetings with the Chief Minister and Finance Minister in the coming weeks.

“The final Budget estimates for 2025-26 are yet to be determined, pending ministerial discussions. The Budget is likely to be presented in the third week of March,” he said. He did not rule out the possibility of holding a marathon Budget review meeting by the Chief Minister and the Deputy Chief Minister before finalising the outlay.

The Congress government presented its first full-fledged Budget in July last year with an outlay of Rs 2.91 lakh crore for 2024-25, slightly surpassing the previous BRS government’s Rs 2.9 lakh crore Budget for 2023-24.