Of every ₹100 the Union government handles in 2026-27, 24 comes from borrowing, and 20 goes straight back out as interest on earlier borrowing. Another 22 goes to the states. What is left, about 58, runs the government and everything it pays for.
One rupee in five pays for past borrowing before a single new road or school is funded. That is ₹14.04 lakh crore in 2026-27.
Income tax, corporation tax, GST, excise and customs together fund 64 paise of each rupee, against 66 a year earlier. Borrowing covers 24.
Defence rose 3 paise to 11; other expenditure fell 3 to 7.
Money is fungible: a rupee of income tax does not travel to a particular road. So the picture sends every source into one pot of ₹100 and every use out of it, instead of drawing lines from a tax to a spend.
The Budget's own “rupee” chart counts the states' share of taxes as money that passes through the Union's hands. That is why 22 paise “goes” to the states and why the whole pot, about ₹70 lakh crore, is bigger than the ₹53.5 lakh crore the Union itself spends. It is the Finance Commission's formula at work: the Centre collects, then shares.
Borrowing of 24 paise is the fiscal deficit seen from the receipts side: what the government must raise beyond its income. The fiscal deficit is 4.3% of GDP in 2026-27, against 4.4% the year before.
Defence takes 11 paise, up from 8. These are Budget Estimates, the plan, not the outcome. Revised Estimates and actuals, published a year later, usually differ a little, and the atlas keeps them apart on the fiscal deficit page.