District Capex expenditure shows grim picture
*Total liability of J&K stands at Rs 6500 crore
Mohinder Verma
JAMMU, Oct 28: Even after more than six months of the ongoing financial year, most districts of Jammu and Kashmir Union Territory have failed to make substantial progress under the District Capex budget, reflecting sluggish implementation of development works at the grassroots level. Moreover, total liability of the UT stands at Rs 6500 crore, which primarily pertains to GP Fund, Gratuity and other committed financial liabilities.
This has come to the fore from the written reply to the question of MLA Sajad Gani Lone furnished by the Chief Minister Omar Abdullah, who is also Minister Incharge Finance Department, in the Legislative Assembly today.
Follow the Daily Excelsior channel on WhatsApp
Till October 16, 2025, the overall expenditure under the District Capex heads stands at Rs 3,35,285.41 lakh, but the percentage utilization against total releases remains alarmingly low in a majority of the districts.
In the Kashmir division, the total expenditure is Rs 1,43,657.36 lakh, but only Ganderbal (87%) and Anantnag (58%) have shown commendable utilization. Districts like Budgam (26%), Bandipora (22%), Baramulla (23%), Kulgam (22%), Kupwara (23%), Pulwama (24%) and Shopian (23%) are far behind. Even Srinagar, the summer capital, has managed just 40% utilization.
The Jammu division paints a similar picture, with total spending of Rs 1,18,251.44 lakh. Udhampur (51%) has performed relatively better, followed by Jammu (39%) and Kathua (26%), while others– Reasi (17%), Ramban (19%), Poonch (15%), Doda (24%), Kishtwar (20%), Rajouri (17%) and Samba (18%) have shown dismal progress.
The Civil Secretariat, responsible for policy coordination and administrative spending, has recorded 28% expenditure, while Mumbai and New Delhi units have reported negligible or nil utilization.
Official sources attribute this poor spending trend to delays in tendering, late release of funds, lack of administrative approval and weak monitoring by district administrations. The figures indicate that despite repeated Government directions for timely completion of works, implementation remains lacklustre at the execution level.
“Unless there is a sharp acceleration in project execution in the next few months, a significant portion of the Capex allocation risks remaining unspent by the end of the financial year, undermining the Government’s objective of decentralized and participatory development”, they said.
When asked about total Capital Expenditure incurred during 2024-25 with comparative analysis of expenditure incurred during the first two quarters (March and June) of the financial year and first two quarters of the financial year 2025-26, the Chief Minister informed the House that Capital expenditure during 2024-25 was Rs 12391.35 crore.
The Capital expenditure during first and second quarter of 2024-25 was Rs 2234.18 crore and Rs 1922.20 crore respectively and during 2025-26, Capital expenditure during first quarter was Rs 280.73 crore and Rs 2293.49 crore during the second quarter. “There were un-discharged liabilities of about Rs 1300 crore related to the works/procurements at the end of financial year 2023-24 and the Capital expenditure in first quarter of 2024-25 was higher side as the Government cleared all such un-discharged liabilities of 2023-24”, the Chief Minister added.
Claiming that fiscal position of the UT remains stable and within the prescribed fiscal parameters, the Chief Minister said that for the current financial year the UT has a total Grant-in-Aid of Rs 41,000.07 crore from the Government of India, which constitutes a significant component of the UT’s budgetary resources.
“As on September 20, 2025, the tax revenue receipts of the UT stand at Rs 6777 crore while the non-tax revenue receipts amount to Rs 4207 crore. Thus the total own revenue generation up to the second quarter of the current financial year is Rs 10,984 crore”, the Minister Incharge Finance said while disclosing that the total liability of the UT as on date is Rs 6500.95 crore, which primarily pertains to the GP fund, Gratuity and other committed financial liabilities.
He further said that overall liquidity position of the UT is comfortable and the timely release of Central grants, coupled with steady growth in own revenues and prudent cash and expenditure management by the Finance Department has ensured that there are no liquidity constraints affecting either developmental or committed expenditures.
“The Government continues to make concerted efforts to strengthen the fiscal position by enhancing revenue mobilization, improving tax compliance, rationalizing user charges and maintaining fiscal discipline across all spending departments”, the Minister said.
The post Fifteen out of 20 districts of UT record below 30% spending appeared first on Daily Excelsior.