The Centre’s spending on welfare schemes, particularly the job guarantee programme, could rise with the likely resumption of the scheme in West Bengal. West Bengal lost nearly Rs 30,000 crore in Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) funds between FY23 and FY26 after the Centre halted allocations over alleged misuse of funds. During this period, states such as Tamil Nadu drew higher allocations, helping keep overall spending under the scheme broadly stable at around Rs 86,000–88,000 crore annually.