Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu on Saturday presented a ₹54,928-crore budget for 2026-27, and blamed the discontinuation of the revenue deficit grant to the state for annual losses of over ₹8,000 crore.
The budget proposals were seen completely overshadowed by the discontinuation of the Revenue Deficit Grant (RDG) by 16th Finance Commission. It was his fourth budget as Finance Minister of Himachal Pradesh and he spoke for nearly four hours.
Probably, it is for the first time, that the budget estimates for the next fiscal at Rs 54928 Crore are Rs 3586 Crore lesser than that of 2025-26 with fiscal deficit of over 9698 Crore. In another unprecedented arrangement, part of salaries of all, right from the Chief Minister to ministers, MLAs, Chief Secretary, Principal Secretary and other Indian Police and Forest Services, along with Group A and Group B categories of employees have been temporarily deferred as per their slabs, respectively.
The CM, Deputy CM and Council of Ministers will face deferment of 50 per cent salary for six months, MLAs 30 per cent, Chief Secretary, Additional Chief Secretaries and Principal Secretaries 30 per cent, and Heads of the Departments 20 per cent. Similarly, 30 per cent salaries of the Director General of Police, ADGPs, and 20 per cent salary of IGPs, DIGs upto the level of SPs have also been temporarily deferred.
The salaries of IFS have also been deferred temporarily, while all the A and B category employees will face temporary deferment of 3 per cent salary. The time period has not been specified, but the Chief Minister said the money would be returned as soon as the financial condition of the state improved.
Claiming that Himachal Pradesh, which will lose Rs 8000 crore annually because of discontinuation of the RDG from next fiscal, can never become revenue surplus because of its typical geographical constraints, the budget focussed on strengthening rural economy—with the government proposing to promote natural farming by increasing Minimum Support Price for natural produce substantially.
“Despite tight financial condition, we have tried to balance the budget by giving relief to the weaker sections and the poor and our objective is to strengthen the rural economy on the whole,” said the Chief Minister."The opposition BJP has not sided with the state in these hard times and they will be remembered in history for wrong reasons," Sukhu said, drawing immediate retaliation from the BJP members.
The opposition took strong exception to a particular word used by the CM for the BJP and started raising slogans against the government, while moving to the well of the House within ten minutes of the start of CM’s speech. Amid chaos, the Speaker adjourned the House for 15 minutes and the BJP members walked out.
Leader of Opposition, Jai Ram Thakur, meanwhile, said the budget presented by the CM indicated that the state was heading towards a financial emergency. He said as per the constitutional provision the salary can not be cut till financial emergency is not declared. “But the initial stage has come as the CM proposed to defer the salaries. The CM is not able to speak the truth about financial condition,” he said.
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