Sources and methods
Every number on this site was read from the Government of India's own budget documents on indiabudget.gov.in, for every budget from 2000-01 to 2026-27, by a program that downloads and parses the official files. Nothing is estimated or taken from news reports. Four figures missing from a PDF's text layer were read from the page image; each is marked.
Checked automatically
1,17,426 checks, all passing. The data is rebuilt from the original documents and checked whenever they change, and the site cannot be built unless every check passes.
- Accounting rules in every column of every document: totals equal their parts, deficits follow from receipts and spending, net tax equals gross tax minus the states' share.
- Tables agree with each other: ministry spending adds up to total spending in every budget; taxes add up to the headline tax figure; scheme totals match the ministries' statement.
- The same number, two documents: most figures are printed in two budgets (an estimate, then reprinted the next year) and must agree.
- Other copies: Excel and web copies of each table are compared with the printed PDF.
- Independent publishers: compared with the Reserve Bank of India's Handbook of Statistics on Indian Economy and PRS Legislative Research's budget analysis.
All 34 groups of checks
- ✓ Accounting rules hold in every source column
- ✓ Same figure agrees across documents (BE restated in the next budget)
- ✓ % of GDP figures agree with the amounts
- ✓ Other copies of the same table (Excel/HTML) agree with the primary file
- ✓ Every year has the figures it should
- ✓ Matches the RBI Handbook of Statistics (independent series)
- ✓ Large year-on-year changes (for review, not failures)
- ✓ Taxes: totals equal their printed parts
- ✓ Taxes: net tax, non-tax and revenue receipts match the headline table
- ✓ Taxes: same figure agrees across budgets
- ✓ Taxes: other copies (Excel/HTML) agree with the primary file
- ✓ Taxes (Receipt Budget actuals 2000-01..2007-08): totals equal their printed parts
- ✓ Taxes (Receipt Budget actuals): net tax, non-tax, revenue receipts match the headline table's Actuals
- ✓ Taxes (Receipt Budget): its RE/BE columns match the Budget at a Glance Receipts table
- ✓ Taxes (Receipt Budget): actuals present for 2000-01..2007-08
- ✓ Ministries: plan + non_plan = total on every line
- ✓ Ministries: revenue + capital = total on every line
- ✓ Ministries: Revenue line + Capital line = department line
- ✓ Ministries: sub-lines add up to the demand
- ✓ Ministries: 'Total:' line repeats the demand total
- ✓ Ministries: departments add up to the grand total
- ✓ Ministries: each spending category adds up across demands
- ✓ Ministries: grand total = Budget at a Glance
- ✓ Ministries: same line agrees in both budgets that print it
- ✓ Ministries: Excel copies agree with the PDF
- ✓ Schemes: revenue + capital = total in every row
- ✓ Schemes add up to their subtotals and the Grand Total
- ✓ Same scheme figure agrees across the two budgets that print it
- ✓ Scheme tables: other copies agree with the PDF
- ✓ Scheme spending as a share of total expenditure (context only)
- ✓ Schemes: grand totals match the scheme lines of the ministries statement
- ✓ Matches PRS Legislative Research, Union Budget 2026-27 Analysis (independent)
- ✓ Published ministries.json: lines add up to the grand total for every year and estimate
- ✓ Published taxes.json: net tax = gross tax - states' share - other deductions
Which documents
| What | Document |
|---|---|
| Headline figures | Budget at a Glance |
| Taxes | Budget at a Glance, Receipts; Receipt Budget Annex 7 for actuals 2000-01 to 2007-08 |
| Ministries | Expenditure Budget Vol. 1, Statement 2 (to 2016-17); Expenditure Profile, Statement 3 (from 2017-18) |
| Schemes | Expenditure Profile, Statements 4A and 4B (from 2017-18) |
Budget Estimate, Revised Estimate, Actual
Each budget prints four columns: what was actually spent two years ago, last year's Budget Estimate and Revised Estimate, and the new year's Budget Estimate. So every year has up to three figures:
- Budget Estimate (BE): what was announced, from that year's budget.
- Revised Estimate (RE): the updated figure near the end of the year, from the next budget.
- Actual: what really happened, from the budget two years later.
Charts show actual figures where they exist, and mark revised or budget estimates with hollow circles.
Problems found in the official files
Checking every number turned up errors in the government's own files. None of them is "fixed" silently: the printed figure is used and the issue is noted.
- The 2005-06 web pages carry the 2003-04 budget's numbers; the PDFs are used instead.
- Several Excel copies (2023-24, 2025-26 and others) differ from the printed PDFs; the PDFs match what the next budget reprints.
- A few typos in printed tables, e.g. 2015-16 capital receipts in Budget 2017-18, and two transposed figures in Budget 2023-24's ministry statement.
- Four figures in two scheme statements are missing from the PDF's text layer and were read from the page image; each carries a note, and the largest was confirmed against a separate statement.
Limits
- "% of GDP" is shown only where the budget prints it (the deficits).
- 2002-03 to 2004-05 capital spending includes debt repayments to the National Small Savings Fund, so those years look higher than they were.
- Before 2017-18 the budget was split into Plan and Non-plan, and many ministries were reorganised in 2017-18, so very long comparisons for one ministry have breaks.
- Scheme figures start with Budget 2017-18.
Privacy
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Download the data
- fiscal.json: Headline figures: receipts, spending, deficits
- taxes.json: Taxes by type, states' share, non-tax revenue
- ministries.json: Spending by ministry and department
- schemes.json: Spending by scheme (from 2017-18)
- observations.csv: Every headline number read, from every document
- validation_report.md: Every check and every documented exception
All amounts are in ₹ crore. Each value records the budget and document it was read from.