April-July fiscal deficit stands at Rs 8.21 lakh crore, breaches full-year target

In just the first four months of FY21, the fiscal deficit has breached its full-year target amid fall in revenue collection due to the coronavirus pandemic, according to the government data released on Monday. The fiscal deficit at July end stood at Rs 8.21 lakh crore, 103.1 per cent of the budgeted target for this financial year. It stood at 77.8 per cent of the annual target during the corresponding period of last fiscal. The government had budgeted Rs 7.96 lakh crore as its fiscal deficit target in the budget.

While the total receipts for the first quarter of the fiscal stood at Rs 2.32 lakh crore, the expenditure was Rs 10.54 lakh crore, according to the data released by the Controller General of Accounts (CGA), The fiscal deficit for July was  recorded at Rs 1.59 lakh crore while the revenue deficit came in at Rs 1.37 lakh crore.

Fiscal deficit, which refers to the difference between expenditure and revenue, had overshot the annual target in October last year.

These figures, however, have to be revised significantly in view of the economic disruptions created by the outbreak of coronavirus. The government had imposed a nationwide lockdown from March 25 to prevent the spread of COVID-19 pandemic. The economy was opened up gradually after the lockdown.

Fiscal deficit had surged to a seven-year high of 4.6 per cent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in 2019-20, mainly on account of poor revenue realisation, which dipped further towards the end of March because of lockdown.

Also read: Worst in 24 years! India's Q1 GDP contracts 23.9% in June quarter