Goa State Budget 2026-27 Analysis

Key Highlights

• Total expenditure (excluding debt repayment) for 2026-27 is budgeted at Rs 28,061 crore, up 5% over the 2025-26 revised estimate of Rs 26,615 crore and 9.4% over the 2025-26 budget estimate of Rs 25,639 crore; the gross outlay including Rs 2,132 crore of debt repayment is Rs 30,194 crore.
• Fiscal deficit is targeted at Rs 4,422 crore, or 3.4% of GSDP — above the 3% annual limit recommended by the 16th Finance Commission for 2026-31, and up from 3.1% of GSDP in the 2025-26 revised estimate.
• Goa retains a revenue surplus of Rs 1,667 crore (1.3% of GSDP), marginally lower than the Rs 1,708 crore surplus in the 2025-26 revised estimate.
• GSDP for 2026-27 is projected at Rs 1.31 lakh crore — 6% lower than the Rs 1.39 lakh crore estimate used for 2025-26 — an unusual downward correction that mechanically inflates deficit and debt ratios.
• Capital outlay is budgeted at Rs 6,083 crore, just 1% above the 2025-26 revised estimate of Rs 6,036 crore, which had itself overshot the budget estimate by 13% on higher energy and road spending.
• Revenue receipts are estimated at Rs 23,636 crore, of which Rs 16,708 crore (71%) comes from Goa's own tax and non-tax sources; central tax devolution contributes Rs 5,571 crore and central grants Rs 1,358 crore.
• Own tax revenue is pegged at Rs 10,136 crore (7.7% of GSDP), led by State GST at Rs 4,766 crore (47% of own taxes), sales tax/VAT at Rs 2,174 crore, and stamps duty and registration fees at Rs 1,484 crore.
• Own non-tax revenue of Rs 6,572 crore includes Rs 4,573 crore from the power business — Rs 3,850 crore from sale of power alone — because electricity distribution is a departmental activity of the state government in Goa.
• Energy is the single largest sector at Rs 5,068 crore, absorbing 18.1% of sectoral expenditure against a 5.3% all-state average, including Rs 2,644 crore for power purchase and Rs 1,551 crore of capital outlay on power projects.
• Committed expenditure — salaries (Rs 6,152 crore), pension (Rs 2,847 crore) and interest payments (Rs 2,292 crore) — totals Rs 11,291 crore, absorbing 48% of estimated revenue receipts.
• Outstanding liabilities are projected to rise to 29.3% of GSDP by end-2026-27 from 27% in the 2025-26 revised estimate; the CAG separately flagged Rs 706 crore of off-budget borrowings in 2023-24 that sit outside these figures.
• Education receives Rs 3,868 crore (13.8% of sectoral expenditure, below the 14.5% state average) while health gets Rs 2,210 crore (7.9%, above the 6.2% average); Goa Medical College alone is allocated Rs 1,063 crore.
• Goa underspent its capital outlay budget by an average of 29% between 2021-22 and 2024-25, though the gap narrowed to 4% in 2024-25; the 2026-27 plan counts on Rs 1,650 crore of 50-year interest-free central capex loans.