After the revoking of Presidential rule and the swearing-in of National Conference's Omar Abdullah and his council of ministers on Wednesday, the budget for the 2025-2026 financial year will be presented in the elected J&K Assembly after a gap of six years.
The previous five successive budgets were presented by the finance minister, Government of India, separately with the Union budget as the region was under direct Central rule for the last six years.
Five ministers, along with Abdullah, have taken oaths; although portfolios are yet to be distributed.
The Finance Minister appointed now will be presenting the first budget of the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir.
Haseeb Drabu was the last Finance Minister to present the budget of ₹80,313 crore in the state Assembly on January 11, 2018, for the financial year 2018-19.
Soon after, the coalition government between the BJP and PDP fractured, collapsing finally in June 2018.
In November 2018, the Assembly was dissolved.
Since then, the budget for 2019-2020 of ₹88,911 crore was adopted by the then State Administrative Council (SAC), headed by then Governor Satya Pal Malik here on December 15, 2018.
Subsequent budgets of the Union Territory for 2020-21, 2021-22, 2022-23, 2023-24, and 2024-25, were presented and passed by the Parliament in the absence of a legislative Assembly in J&K.
Before this, the session of the legislative Assembly used to be held in January-February in Jammu every year.
Preparations for the budget will start immediately after the appointment of the new Finance Minister, as department-wise assessments have to be taken by the Ministry before finalisation of the budgetary documents, government officials said.
“Jammu and Kashmir has generally been dependent on the Central grants,” experts said.
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