AAP bets on women with cash in election year

Presenting a ₹Cheema termed the Rs 2.60 lakh crore budget as “Saari Guarantee Puri Karan Wala Budget”, which means all the promises made to the people have been fulfilled.

The centerpiece of the budget, which the Finance Minister described as a tribute to the “mothers and daughters” of the state, was the Chief Minister Mawan Dhyan Satikar Scheme, a direct benefit transfer scheme under which ₹All eligible adult women except Scheduled Caste women will be given Rs 1,000 per month ₹1,500 every month directly into their bank accounts. The Finance Minister has identified ₹₹9,300 crore for the scheme.

With International Women’s Day, ₹The financial assistance of Rs 1,000 was a major promise made by the ruling Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) ahead of the 2022 assembly elections. For the first time in Punjab, the state budget has been presented on Sunday. The ruling party welcomed the Finance Minister’s announcement by thumping tables and raising slogans. Cheema and the wives of Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann were present in the speaker gallery. AAP state in-charge Manish Sisodia and MP Gurmeet Singh Meet Hayer also witnessed the proceedings.

The viewing galleries were packed with women including Aam Aadmi Party supporters from across the state.

politics behind the budget

Budget 2026-27 was the last chance for the AAP government, which came to power with a historic mandate in 2022 on the promise of free electricity and other populist guarantees. ₹Rs 1,000 monthly assistance for women.

Ahead of the 2022 state assembly elections, AAP national convenor Arvind Kejriwal promised ₹If the party comes to power, every adult woman will be given Rs 1,000 per month. While the government implemented most of the other promises, including 300 units of free electricity to domestic consumers, the monthly assistance for women remained pending. Although free electricity for 90% of households and other populist schemes have put state finances under pressure, the government did not see this as a hindrance in launching a cash-payment scheme for women from the upcoming financial year. The ruling AAP was constantly under attack from opposition parties for failing to fulfill this key promise. Another important factor behind the announcement was the electoral benefits seen from caste-transfer schemes for women in states like Haryana, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar, Maharashtra and Jharkhand. In Punjab, out of 2.13 crore voters, 1.01 crore or about 47% are women.

While it is too early to say what impact this announcement will have for AAP in the state elections, opposition parties are already demanding a release from the government. ₹Each woman is owed Rs 48,000 for the last four years.

Finance Minister’s statement sarcasm on Haryana

Cheema said his is the world’s first universal cash transfer scheme for women and it will be implemented with prospective effect. He said many states had started announcing similar schemes but these were limited to only a small section of women, ignoring the vast majority of women who are economically dependent on men for their basic needs. “For example, one of our neighboring states announced a similar scheme but limited it only to low annual income families ₹1 lakh, which covers only 20% of all adult women. Bhagwant Mann ji is the Chief Minister not for 20% of the women of Punjab, but for all the women of Punjab,” he said, taking a dig at the BJP government in Haryana.

Government employees, IT assessors, lawmakers are excluded

Describing the budgetary proposals as a tribute to the “mothers and daughters” of the state, Cheema said every woman above 18 years of age in Punjab, except current or previous permanent government employees, current or former MPs/MLAs and income tax payers, will be eligible to enroll under the scheme. “Women enrolled under existing social security pension schemes such as old age pension or widow/destitute women pension or disability pension scheme will also be eligible under this scheme,” the Finance Minister said in his nearly two-and-a-half hour speech.

He said that about 97% of all adult women in Punjab would be eligible under the scheme, which is the highest for any state in the country. However, in his traditional press conference after the budget presentation, Cheema clarified that income tax assessees, and not just payers, will come under the exclusion list. Despite being repeatedly asked about the probable number of women beneficiaries and Scheduled Caste beneficiaries, the Finance Minister did not give any numbers saying that the figure would be known after their registration. He announced that the registration of eligible beneficiaries will start from Baisakhi (April 14). A senior government official said the financial assistance was intended to be distributed from April 2026, but no final decision has been taken. While Cheema also did not specify how resources would be raised for the new scheme, people familiar with the matter indicated that the government would finance it through asset monetization and savings from the recently announced cut in power subsidies.

Fiscal math: Budget outlay increased by 2.3%

Proposed expenditure, including ways and means advance ₹This is 10% more than the budgetary expenditure of Rs 2.60 lakh crore. ₹2.36 lakh crore in the financial year 2025-26. The quantum of increase is much lower than the Revised Estimate (RE) of 2.3% for 2025-26 as the Finance Department has revised the estimated expenditure ₹2.53 lakh crore due to higher interest payments, pension bills and other revenue expenditure. Capital receipts, including way and means advances and non-debt receipts, also witnessed growth on the revenue side.

But ₹At Rs 39,971, crore, the state’s fiscal deficit as a share of gross state domestic product (GSDP) in FY 2026-26 is estimated to be 4.08%, slightly lower than 4.18% in 2025-26 RE. In its budget estimates for 2025-26, the government had estimated it to be 3.84% but it increased due to additional borrowing. The outstanding debt on the state is likely to increase ₹Rs 4.47 lakh crore as on March 31, 2027 – about 10% more ₹4.07 lakh crore at the end of this year. The fiscal deficit in financial years 2023-24 and 2024-25 was 4.5% and 4,74% respectively.

On the revenue side, the total revenue receipts are estimated to be ₹1.26 lakh in FY 2026-27, of which own tax revenue is responsible ₹70,851 crore and non-tax revenue is estimated ₹15,687 crores. Cheema said the 16th Finance Commission has increased Punjab’s share in horizontal transfer from 1.807% to 1.996%. “As a result, our share in central taxes is estimated to increase ₹Against Rs 30,464 crore in the financial year 2026-27 ₹25,171 crore in the financial year 2025-26 – an increase of ₹This is Rs 5,293 crore compared to last year. Grant-in-aid from the Center has been estimated. ₹9,188 crore in FY 2026-27. State’s own tax revenue is estimated to increase by 14% ₹70,851 crore from RE 2025-26 ₹61,700 crores. The Finance Minister said that the government has achieved impressive revenue growth in every major revenue stream. With a transparent policy, firm implementation and zero tolerance towards leakages, revenue collection has improved significantly,” he said.

According to the budget document, the state economy is estimated to grow at 10% in fiscal year 2026-27 ₹to Rs 9,80,635 crore ₹Rs 8,91,487 crore in the last financial year on the back of improvement in agricultural productivity, expansion of service activity and strong industrial momentum.

Rural-urban infra push: buses, gyms, playgrounds

According to the budget speech, allocation for Rangla Punjab Development Scheme, announced with a dedicated allocation in 2025-26 ₹has doubled from Rs 585 crore ₹1,170 crores, or ₹Rs 10 crore per assembly constituency annually for creation and upgradation of local infrastructure and public assets in all 117 constituencies. “This initiative is being scaled up to accelerate development at the grassroots level. To ensure complete transparency, a dedicated digital portal has been operationalized with geo-tagged monitoring and photographic documentation for real-time tracking of funds from the state treasury to the executing agency,” Cheema said in his speech. He said 6,000 new rural playgrounds and 5,000 indoor gyms would be built across the state and 1,279 new buses – 670 in PRTC and 609 in PUNbus, would be added to the government fleet. On the welfare front, the FM announced that the long-standing demand of opening enrollment for new ration cards has been accepted and 10 lakh new beneficiaries will be added.