April-June fiscal deficit at 51.6% of FY16 estimates

India's fiscal deficit for the first three months of FY16 stood at Rs 2.87 lakh cr, or 51.6 per cent of the full year budgeted estimate of Rs 5.56 lakh cr. In the corresponding period last year, fiscal deficit stood at 56.1 per cent of the 2014-15 target.

Total revenue receipts for April-June 2015 stood at Rs 1.41 lakh cr, or 12.4 per cent of the full-year target of Rs 11.41 lakh cr, compared to 9.6 per cent for the corresponding period last year.

Tax revenues were Rs 1.02 lakh cr in April-June, 11.1 per cent of the full year budgeted estimates, compared to 10.1 per cent in the corresponding period last year. Non-tax revenues, at Rs 39,519 cr, were 17.8 per cent of the budgeted estimates, against 7.2 per cent a year ago.

Non-plan expenditure for April-June was Rs 3.16 lakh cr, 24.1 per cent of the full-year estimates of Rs 13.12 lakh cr, compared to 24.7 per cent for the comparable period from 2014-15. Plan spending for the quarter under review was Rs 1.15 lakh cr, or 24.7 per cent of the full-year budgeted estimates of Rs 4.65 lakh cr, compared to 19.4 per cent in the year-ago quarter.

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Friday sought the approval of Parliament to authorise gross additional expenditure of Rs 40,822 cr through supplementary demand for grants. This included Rs 12,000 cr for recapitalising state-owned banks.

Speaking to reporters, minister of state for finance Jayant Sinha said the financial situation was healthy enough for additional spending.

"The fiscal-deficit situation looks good. We have room for the additional spending, which we asked through the supplementary demand for grants today," said Sinha.