India's fiscal deficit reaches 96% of financial year target due to lower revenue, expenditure rise

Lower revenue realisation and the rise in expenditure attributed India's fiscal deficit of Rs 5.25 trillion for April-October, which is equal to 96.1 per cent of the budget estimate for the fiscal year. As the government released the fiscal report, Sensex tanked by 455 points to 33,147 level while Nifty went down by 134 points to 10,226 level on Thursday. The fiscal deficit for the first half of the financial year had reached Rs 4.99 lakh crore (91.3) of the budget estimate in October.

During the same period a year ago, the fiscal deficit was reported to be around 79.3 per cent. For 2017-18, the government aims to bring down the fiscal deficit to 3.2 per cent of GDP. Last fiscal, it had met the 3.5 per cent target. Net tax receipts in the first seven months of 2017/18 fiscal year were 6.34 trillion rupees, government data showed on Thursday. In absolute terms, the fiscal deficit - the difference between expenditure and revenue - was Rs 5.25 lakh crore during April-October of 2017-18, according to data of the Controller General of Accounts (CGA).

The CGA data showed that the government's revenue receipts were at Rs 7.29 lakh crore in the seven months of the current fiscal, which work out to be 48.1 per cent of the budget estimate (BE) of Rs 15.15 lakh crore for the entire year. The receipts, comprising taxes and other items, were at 50.7 per cent of the target in the year-ago period.

As per the data, the government's total expenditure was Rs 12.92 lakh crore at October-end, or 60.2 per cent of the budget estimate. It was 58.2 per cent of the budget estimate a year ago. Capital expenditure during April-October of 2017-18 was only 52.6 per cent of the BE compared to 50.7 per cent in the same period of the previous fiscal. Revenue expenditure, including interest payment, was 61.5 per cent of the BE during April-October 2017-18. This compares with 59.2 per cent a year earlier.

With PTI inputs