Chandigarh, March 9 -- With an eye on the state assembly elections due early next year, Punjab finance minister Harpal Singh Cheema on Sunday announced a cash transfer scheme to give up to Rs.1,500 per month financial assistance to adult women in the state, in his budget for the 2026-27 financial year, along with a raft of other proposals aimed at boosting growth and improving rural and urban infrastructure as well as sports facilities. Presenting a Rs.2.60-lakh crore budget, Cheema named it as "saari guarantiyan puri karan wala budget" (guarantee-fulfilling budget), implying that all promises made to the people have been fulfilled. The centrepiece of the budget, which the finance minister described as a tribute to the "mothers and daughters" of the state, was the Mukh Mantri Mawan Dhian Satikar Yojna, a direct benefit transfer scheme, under which Rs.1,000 per month will be given to all the eligible adult women except Scheduled Caste women, who will be getting Rs.1,500 every month directly in their bank accounts. The finance minister has earmarked Rs.9,300 crore for the scheme. Coinciding with International Women's Day, the Rs.1,000 financial aid was a key promise made by the ruling AAP before the 2022 assembly elections. For the first time, the state budget has been presented in Punjab on a Sunday. The treasury benches welcomed the finance minister's announcement by thumping their desks and raising slogans. The spouses of Cheema and chief minister Bhagwant Mann were present in the Speaker's gallery. AAP state in-charge Manish Sisodia and MP Gurmeet Singh Meet Hayer also watched the proceedings.The visitors' galleries were jampacked with women, including supporters of the Aam Aadmi Party, from across the state. The budget 2026-27 was the last chance for the AAP government, which came to power in 2022 with a historic mandate on the promise of free electricity other populist guarantees, to roll out the Rs.1,000 monthly aid for women. Ahead of the 2022 state assembly polls, AAP national convener Arvind Kejriwal had promised Rs.1,000 per month to every adult woman, if the party was voted to power. While the government implemented most other promises, including 300 units of free electricity to domestic consumers, the monthly aid for women remained pending. Though free electricity for 90% households and other populist schemes has brought the state's finances under strain, the government did not see this as a constraint in rolling out the cash-guzzling scheme for women from the coming fiscal year. The ruling AAP was under constant fire from the opposition parties for failing to deliver on this key promise. Another important factor behind the announcement was the electoral gains observed from cast-transfer schemes for women in states like Haryana, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar, Maharashtra, and Jharkhand. In Punjab, women make up 1.01 crore, or around 47%, of the 2.13 crore electors. While it is too early to say how the announcement will play out for the AAP in the state elections, opposition parties are already demanding that the government release Rs.48,000 to every woman as arrears for the past four years. Cheema said theirs was the world's first universal cash transfer scheme for women and would be implemented with prospective effect. He said that many states had started the jumla of announcing similar schemes but these were limited only to a small section of women, ignoring the vast majority of women who are financially dependent on men for their basic needs. "For example, one of our neighbouring states announced a similar scheme but limited it only to households with annual income of under Rs.1 lakh, covering only 20% of all adult women. Bhagwant Mann Ji is not the CM for 20% of the women of Punjab, but for all the women of Punjab," he said, taking a dig at the BJP government in Haryana. Describing budgetary proposals as a tribute to the "mothers and daughters" of the state, Cheema said every woman in Punjab above 18 years of age will be eligible to enrol under this scheme, except existing or past permanent government employees, current or former MPs/MLAs, and income tax payees. "Even women enrolled under existing social security pension schemes such as old-age pension or widow/destitute women pension or disability pension scheme will be eligible under this scheme," the finance minister said in his nearly two-and-a-half-hour speech. He added that around 97% of all adult women in Punjab would be eligible under this scheme, which is the highest for any state in the country. However, at his customary press conference after the budget presentation, Cheema clarified that income tax assessees, not just payees, would fall under the exclusion list. Despite being repeatedly asked about the likely number of women beneficiaries and those from the Scheduled Castes, the finance minister did not give any number, stating the figure would be known after their registration. He announced that registration of eligible beneficiaries would begin from Baisakhi (April 14). A senior government functionary said that the intention was to distribute the financial assistance from April 2026, but no final decision had been taken. While Cheema also did not specify how resources for the new scheme would be generated, people familiar with the matter indicated that the government would fund it through asset monetisation and savings made from the cut announced in power subsidy recently. The proposed expenditure, including ways and means advances, of Rs.2.60 lakh crore is 10 % more than the budgeted spending of Rs.2.36 lakh crore in the 2025-26 financial year. The quantum of increase is much smaller compared to the 2025-26 Revised Estimate (RE) at 2.3%, as the finance department has revised the estimated spending to Rs.2.53 lakh crore due to higher interest payments, pension bill and other revenue expenditure. Capital receipts, including ways and means advances and non-debt receipts, also saw an uptick on the revenue side. At Rs.39,971, crore, the state's fiscal deficit is estimated to be 4.08% as a share of gross state domestic product (GSDP) in FY 2026-26, which is slightly lower than the 2025-26 RE of 4.18%. In its budget estimates for 2025-26, the government had projected it 3.84% but it increased due to additional borrowing. The state's outstanding debt is likely to go up to Rs.4.47 lakh crore as on March 31, 2027 - up about 10% from Rs.4.07 lakh crore at the end of this year. The fiscal deficit was 4.5% and 4,74% in financial years 2023-24 and 2024-25, respectively. On revenue side, the total revenue receipts have been projected to be Rs.1.26 lakh in FY 2026-27, of which the own tax revenue accounts for Rs.70,851 crore and non-tax revenue has been pegged at Rs.15,687 crore. Cheema said the 16th Finance Commission has enhanced Punjab's share in horizontal devolution from 1.807% to 1.996%. "As a result, our share of central taxes is estimated to rise to Rs.30,464 crore in FY 2026-27, as against Rs.25,171 crore in FY 2025-26 - an increase of Rs.5,293 crore over the previous year," he said. Grant-in-Aid from the Centre has been projected at Rs.9,188 crore in FY 2026-27. The state's own tax revenue are estimated to grow by 14% to Rs.70,851 crore from 2025-26 RE of Rs.61,700 crore. The FM said the government had achieved impressive revenue growth across each major revenue stream. With transparent policy, firm enforcement and zero tolerance towards leakage, revenue realization has improved substantially," he added. According to budget document, the state's economy is estimated to grow at 10% in FY 2026-27 to reach Rs.9,80,635 crore from Rs.8,91,487 crore in the previous fiscal, on the strength of improved agricultural productivity, expanding services activity and strengthened industrial momentum. According to the budget speech, the allocation for the Rangla Punjab Vikas Scheme, announced in 2025-26 with a dedicated allocation of Rs.585 crore, has doubled to Rs.1,170 crore, or Rs.10 crore per assembly constituency, annually for the creation and upgradation of local infrastructure and public assets across all 117 constituencies. "This initiative is being scaled up to accelerate grassroots development. To ensure complete transparency, a dedicated digital portal has been made operational for real-time tracking of funds from the State treasury to the executing agency, with geo-tagged monitoring and photographic documentation of works," Cheema said in his speech. He said 6,000 new village playgrounds and 5,000 indoor gyms would be built across the state and 1,279 new buses - 670 in PRTC and 609 in PUNBUS, added to the government's fleet. On the welfare front, the FM announced that a demand to open up enrolment for new ration cards had been accepted....