Apr-Feb fiscal deficit up 23% to Rs 3.8 lakh cr

India's fiscal deficit shot up over 23 per cent to Rs 3.80 lakh crore in the first eleven months of this fiscal mainly because of the overruns due to the stimulus measures taken by the government during the slowdown last year.

The April-February fiscal deficit is at 92 per cent of the budgeted estimate of Rs 4.14 lakh crore for the current fiscal. The deficit in the first eleven months of the last financial year was Rs 3.07 lakh crore.

To spur economic activity, the government had initiated a massive spending programme and slashed duties from December 2008 in three stages to cushion the impact of the global financial crisis that began in September 2008.

However, partially rolling back the stimulus in Budget 2011, the government has raised excise duty by 2 per cent to 10 per cent and enhanced tax rates on other products making consumer goods like cars, ACs and several other items costlier.

The Budget 2010-11 has a fiscal deficit of 5.5 per cent with total expenditure pegged at Rs 11.09 lakh crore.

Estimated revenue of total tax and non-tax is at Rs 6.82 lakh crore for 2010-11.

The fiscal deficit for the current fiscal is pegged at 6.9 per cent, a tad over the previous estimate of 6.8 per cent.

Till February, the Centre's overall expenditure stood at over Rs 8.58 lakh crore, while receipts were way below at around Rs 4.77 lakh crore.

The government had pegged total expenditure at the record level of over Rs 10.2 lakh crore this fiscal, 84 per cent of which has already been incurred till February.

Of the over Rs 8.58-lakh crore expenditure incurred by the government, more than 70 per cent is accounted by non-plan outgo including interest payments.

Meanwhile, the revenue deficit, which is the excess of revenue expenditure like salaries over revenue income, rose to Rs 3.15 lakh crore till February. The government's tax collections at Rs 3.58 lakh crore contributed the most to its kitty.