evidence: In the last 20 years, the size of the government’s expenditure budget has increased more than 8 times, or 856 per cent to Rs 45.03 lakh crore in financial year 2023-24 (FY24) from 4.71 lakh crore in FY04. In that time, India was ruled by two different coalition governments. In the first 10 years, Manmohan Singh-led UPA was in power from FY04 to FY14 and from May 2014 (FY15) to FY24 Narendra Modi-led NDA has been administering the Indian government. Ahead of the general election next year here’s a look at how these two governments spent taxpayers’ money in their tenure.