Ahead of 2024 general assembly polls budget allocates 10% hike in funding for election related expenses

Budget 2024: In her short budget speech, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman had a special announcement for the upcoming general election. The budget has allocated a 10% hike in spending for election-related expenses.

Election budget allocation

The allocation for poll expenses has risen from Rs 2,183.78 crore in 2023 to Rs 2,442.85 crore in the interim budget. Out of this Rs 1,000 crore will go towards the Lok Sabha elections, up from Rs 180 crore allocated last year.

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Similarly, Rs 1,003.2 crore has been allocated this year for poll related activities like preparation and printing of electoral rolls earlier. Last year only Rs 94 crore was allocated for poll-related activities. This hike is done keeping in mind that all states and Union territories have been simultaneously updating and printing electoral rolls, ahead of the big election.

Likewise, from Rs 18 crore allocated towards voter identity cards in 2023, the amount has been hiked to Rs 404.81 crore this year. In total, from Rs 292 crore allocated towards the ‘Organs of Elections’ in 2023, the amount has been significantly stepped up to Rs 2,408 crore in 2024 for the conduct of general elections. This is mainly to catch up on the major expenses being incurred since late last year.

The bulk of the expenses is always given towards placing orders for electronic voting machines and voter verifiable paper audit trail machines. While Rs 1,891 crore was allocated for the two machines, revised estimates rose to Rs 2,502 crore to meet the supply needs according to electoral timelines.

To ensure availability of additional EVMs an extra Rs 34.84 crore is set aside.