Mangalore University presents ₹68.34 crore deficit budget

Mangalore University presents a ₹68.34 crore deficit budget for 2026-27, continuing financial challenges over the past three years.

The Mangalore University presented a ₹68.33 crore deficit budget for the year 2026-27. The university faced a deficit for the last three years.

Presenting the budget at the university’s Academic Council Meeting on Tuesday, Deputy Registrar K.R. Lalitha said the total receipts for the year 2026-27 were estimated at ₹194.09 crore, while the total expenditure for 2026-27 was estimated at ₹262.43 crore. And thus deficit was estimated at ₹68.34 crore.

The deficit in the 2023-24 budget was ₹1.75 crore and it grew to ₹21 crore in 2024-25. In the 2025-26, the deficit was at ₹37 crore.

Ms. Lalitha said as many as 18 staff members were retiring in 2026-27, and ₹17.32 crore was required to pay retirement benefits and for encashment of earned leave. Of the ₹48.52 crore sought from the government for pension wages in 2026-27, the government has released ₹20 crore. While the university, with difficulty, was meeting the shortfall from its internal resources, it reiterated its request to the government for the release of ₹28.52 crore.

Every year, senior professors and other permanent teaching staff retire. As no permission was given for the direct recruitment of teaching staff, the university was taking guest lecturers and non-teaching staff on a temporary basis. Honorarium to the temporary staff was being met through the university’s internal resources. The government has not released SC and ST students’ welfare funds for the year 2025-26 and ₹1.74 crore was met through its internal resources.

While administrative expenses and academic activity expenses were increasing every year, the income of the university is coming own with a decrease in the number of admissions to courses and a larger number of colleges getting autonomous status. As grants from the government too was decreasing, the university has resorted to austerity measures.