Delhi government to present 2023-24 budget today | What's expected

> Officials also said that apart from health and education, the budget might have a significant outlay for infrastructure development, particularly roads, in the city.

> The Arvind Kejriwal government's plan to beautify and modernise the Delhi's infrastructure is likely to be the main focus of Budget 2023-24. In the wake of G20 meetings, the Delhi government plans to upgrade and beautify the entire 1,400 kilometres road network of the public works department and nearly Rs 20,000 crore will be spent over a period of 10 years on the project, a source said.

The annual budget size for the government in the year 2022-23 was Rs 75,800 crore and Rs 69,000 crore in the previous year.

The Delhi Budget was scheduled to be tabled on Tuesday. However, the Ministry of Home Affairs put the budget on hold and sought clarification from the Delhi government on the Budget proposals. It was approved by the MHA on Tuesday.

Sources told PTI that the home ministry sought clarification from the AAP government as its budget proposal had a high allocation for advertisement and relatively low funding for infrastructure and other development initiatives.

However, the AAP government denied the charges saying the total budget size was Rs 78,800 crore, out of which Rs 22,000 crore was earmarked for expenditure on infrastructure and just Rs 550 crore on advertisements. The allocation for advertisement was the same as in the last year's budget, Delhi minister Kailash Gahlot said.

The budget session of the Delhi assembly commenced on March 17 with Lt Governor V K Saxena addressing the House. The budget will be presented on March 22 and will be preceded by an Outcome Budget of the Arvind Kejriwal-led government.

Finance Minister Kailash Gahlot will present his first budget in the assembly.

He was given charge of the department after the resignation of deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia who was arrested by the ED in connection with the Delhi excise policy scam case.

”Budget preparation is exciting but a very time-consuming exercise. Days are filled with endless cups of coffee and non-stop meetings with officers,” Gahlot said in a tweet.

Ahead of the upcoming Budget, the Delhi government issued a 66 percent increase in the salaries of Delhi ministers and MLAs after receiving the President's nod.