New Delhi, Feb. 12 -- Every 1 February, the nation tunes it for Union budget, parsing how the finance minister allocates limited resources to meet vast public expectations.

This, however, is not a story about how these financial plans satisfy citizens, economists, or policymakers, but rather how the Union government and its fifty-plus ministries adhere to their own internal targets. On that count, the results are often underwhelming.

A Mint analysis comparing budgeted outlays with actual expenditure between FY10 and FY26, excluding the pandemic years of FY21 and FY22, shows that several ministries and flagship schemes faced sharp spending compression toward the end of the fiscal year. The squeeze intensified as the government walked a n...