Jammu- After a gap of seven years, Jammu & Kashmir’s annual budget for 2025-26 will be presented in the Legislative Assembly on Friday by Chief Minister Omar Abdullah, who is also serving as finance minister of the Union Territory.
J&K’s annual financial statement of expenditure for 2025-26 and the supplementary statement of expenditure for 2024-25 will be presented in the House by Omar Abdullah tomorrow after the conclusion of question hour.
This will be for the first time since 2018 that the budget of J&K will be presented in the Assembly. After imposition of central rule in Jammu & Kashmir in 2018, the budget documents of the UT were tabled annually in the Parliament by the Union Finance Minister. It is for the first time in history that the CM would unveil the budget in the Assembly, reported news agency KNO.
As already reported, the cabinet gave its go-ahead to the budget during its meeting on March 02.
As per the calendar issued by the Legislative Assembly secretariat, there will be general discussions on the budget on March 8, 10, and 11. The Finance Minister, who is also the Chief Minister, will conclude discussion on the budget on March 11 with his reply.
All eyes are on the budget given commitments made by the National Conference in its manifesto for the 2024 assembly elections.
Business Rules Sent To LG For Approval
The Chief Minister said business rules for the government have been framed and sent to the Lieutenant Governor for approval to facilitate smooth governance without confusion.
“Until we receive statehood, it is necessary to establish business rules for clarity. It took some time, but yesterday at 8 pm, we convened a cabinet meeting and finalised the business rules. They were approved by our cabinet,” Abdullah said in reply to the motion of thanks to the Lieutenant Governor’s address to the Assembly.
He further said the rules have been submitted to the Lieutenant Governor for approval. “We hope they will be approved,” he added.
Asserting that this step will reduce confusion, he said, “As long as this system is in place, it should operate smoothly without any confusion. Although I view it as temporary, implementing business rules is preferable to reduce confusion.”
Chief Minister Abdullah last month openly criticised the dual governance model in the Union Territory (UT) — where he shares power with the Lieutenant Governor — as a “recipe for disaster”.
He had said the hybrid model of governance in the UT was not to anyone’s advantage and the systems worked better when there was a single centre of command.
The Congress, People’s Democratic Party (PDP) and other parties have criticised the dual model of governance in J&K.
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