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New Delhi: While the Union Budget 2025-26 had been criticised at the time for not highlighting social sector spending enough and for under-funding key welfare schemes, the Union Budget 2026-27 documents have revealed that even the amounts promised were not spent by the Union government.

The Wire analysed numbers put out for 20 social sector schemes, to see whether the government was, in fact, putting its money where its mouth is.

Revised estimates for financial year 2025-26 exceed the budget estimates for only two schemes: the PM Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana and MGNREGA. This is striking because one of these – the MGNREGA – has in fact been discontinued. While the government has set aside a larger budget for the Bill it brought in to replace the previous employment guarantee (Rs 95,692 crore........

© The Wire