The government of India has budgeted for ₹50 lakh crore ($580 billion), crossing the milestone for the first time ever, in annual expenses for the financial year ending March 2026. That's 7% more than the revised estimate for ongoing financial year that ends on March 31, 2025. Nearly a fourth of the amount, about 24%, will be met with borrowings. Again, 24% of this budget goes into paying interest on borrowings and pensions to retired government employees. The biggest slice of government expenditure is defence, which got ₹4.91 lakh crore of the budget allocation, followed by rural development (₹2.66 lakh crore), and home affairs (₹2.33 lakh crore). The government's annual expenses have increased two and a half times from ₹19.7 lakh crore at the end of March 2017 to over ₹50 lakh crore now. Similarly, the goverment's total receipts have gone up 2.3 times in the same period. The share of tax revenue, which is expected to contribute over 62% of the government's revenue, has gone up from 5.5% at the end of March 2017 to 6.9% (as per revised estimates) now. The government expects it to rise to 7.1% in the next year.