A report by the Comptroller and Auditor General has warned that Maharashtra’s finances could come under strain because of its spending on the Mukhyamantri Majhi Ladki Bahin Yojana, the Hindustan Times reported on Sunday.

The scheme, launched in June 2024, provides a monthly transfer of Rs 1,500 to women aged 21 to 65 whose families earn less than Rs 2.5 lakh per year.

The Ladki Bahin scheme is said to have played an important role in the Bharatiya Janata Party-led Mahayuti alliance winning 230 seats in the 288-member Assembly in November 2024.

The report, tabled in the state legislature on Friday, said that spending on the Ladki Bahin scheme has led to the women’s welfare budget to jump to Rs 33,554.3 crore in 2024-’25 from Rs 261.7 crore in 2023-’24. This amounts to an increase of approximately 12,700%.

“The spending in the social sector expanded significantly while capital expenditure accounted for only about 14% of total expenditure, indicating a shift towards revenue expenditure and cash-transfer schemes,” the newspaper quoted the report as saying.

The audit also flagged the state’s dependence on off-budget borrowing which are loans taken by state agencies through government-owned entities instead of directly by the government.

It said that Maharashtra recorded a revenue deficit of Rs 29,994 crore, a fiscal deficit of Rs 1.2 lakh crore and outstanding liabilities of Rs 8.6 lakh crore in 2024-’25.

“Maharashtra’s fiscal health is anchored by robust [Gross State Domestic Product] growth,” the newspaper quoted the report as noting. “However, the increasing revenue deficit will necessitate an increased reliance on market borrowing to finance capital expenditure. This generates potential risk to long term debt sustainability.”

The Ladki Bahin scheme has sparked controversy due to the strain it has placed on the state’s finances. Monthly scrutiny exercises had also flagged numerous instances of ineligible enrolments.

In October, Nationalist Congress Party leader and state minister Chhagan Bhujbal had claimed that all government departments were facing a fund crunch because of the Ladki Bahin scheme.

In February, state minister Ganesh Naik acknowledged that the scheme had put financial strain on government departments but said it would not be discontinued. The state government spends Rs 3,700 crore to disburse the benefits to 2.4 crore beneficiaries each month under the scheme.

A review of the scheme in July 2025 had found that more than 14,000 men in Maharashtra allegedly received a monthly payout under the scheme for 10 months.

The Women and Child Development Department said that 14,298 men had enrolled in the scheme by misrepresenting their identities, leading to a loss of Rs 21.4 crore to the state exchequer.

Payments to their accounts have since been stopped.

In June, a state-wide verification exercise found about 80 lakh women ineligible for the scheme. As a result, the number of beneficiaries fell from about 2.4 crore to nearly 1.7 crore after the April 30 deadline to complete the e-KYC process.

Opposition leaders alleged that the government was reducing the number of beneficiaries because of the state's financial constraints.

Edited by Tanya Shrivastava.

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