What does the 2026–27 Union Budget actually say about spending?

The Union Budget at a Glance provides a useful exercise in reading financial claims. The table used here is PDF page 3, printed page 1. All amounts below are in ₹ crore. These are the figures in that budget document, not a live expenditure dashboard. 1

Read the four columns

Source: rows 9, 10 and 13 of the table. BE means Budget Estimates; RE means Revised Estimates. 1

One reproducible calculation

Comparing 2026–27 BE total expenditure with 2025–26 RE:

(5,347,315 − 4,964,842) / 4,964,842 × 100 = approximately 7.70%

A supported description is: the proposed total expenditure in 2026–27 BE is about 7.70% above the 2025–26 revised estimate.

It would be unsupported to replace that with “government services improved by 7.70%” or “actual expenditure has already risen by 7.70%”. Neither conclusion follows from these two inputs.

Check the arithmetic before the interpretation

For each column, revenue expenditure plus capital expenditure equals total expenditure in this table. That is a useful consistency check, not proof that every underlying transaction or policy decision was correct.

The table preserves the document's reported precision. Its values should not be mixed with a differently rounded chart without explaining the rounding.

Change the denominator, change the question

The previous year's original Budget Estimate and Revised Estimate are different comparison bases. Both can be relevant, but the caption must identify which was used. Do not switch between them to obtain the largest headline percentage.

Nor is this calculation adjusted for inflation, population or the composition of expenditure. Those would be separate analyses requiring additional inputs.

The downloadable data card accompanying this article includes integer inputs, row labels, units and calculation checks. It does not claim that a budget estimate is a completed service outcome.