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At a glance/Budget/Interest payments
Budget · annual

Interest payments

What the Union government pays each year as interest on its borrowing.

2026-27● Fresh
₹14.04
Budget estimate
Checked against the Budget documents on 2026-10-22. Next: the Union Budget for 2027-28 (due around 1 February 2027).
Previous12.742025-26
Average, last 5 years11.572022-23 to 2026-27

Over time

0.02.55.07.510.012.515.014.042021-222022-232023-242024-252025-262026-27
Solid bars are actuals; dashed bars are estimates (revised or budget).CSV
View as a table
PeriodValueStatusBase
2026-2714.04Budget estimate
2025-2612.74Revised estimate
2024-2511.16Actual
2023-2410.64Actual
2022-239.29Actual
2021-228.05Actual
Why it matters

Interest is the largest single item of the Union government's own spending. Every rupee that goes to it cannot go to schools, roads or defence.

What it leaves out

We compute it as fiscal deficit minus primary deficit, which the Budget at a Glance table confirms to the rupee for the years we checked. It is a cash payment, not the interest rate.

How we compute it

Fiscal deficit minus primary deficit, in ₹ crore, shown in ₹ lakh crore.

RelatedInterest burden →Primary deficit →
Past-paper questionsPublic expenditure and public debt →Indian public finance and the Union Budget →
Source · Ministry of Finance, Union Budget documents (entered by hand) · Government of India budget documents, attributed; figures read from the Budget at a Glance tables
Unit · ₹ lakh crore · worked out by us
Release · Once a year, with the Union Budget (1 February). Each Budget restates the previous year as a revised estimate or actual.
Last checked · 2026-10-22 · freshness of every number →
Series id · public-finance.interest