Deficit soars 42% to Rs 3.09 lakh cr till Q3

The fiscal deficit soared by 42 per cent to Rs 3.09 lakh crore in the first nine months of the fiscal against Rs 2.18 lakh crore a year ago, as the government cut taxes and stepped up expenditure to stimulate the economy hit by the global financial crisis.

At this level, fiscal deficit has already touched 77.3 per cent of the budgeted estimate at about Rs 4.01 lakh crore for the entire fiscal.

To spur economic activity, the Government had initiated massive spending programmes and slashed duties from December last year. This has, in fact led, to an upward revision of fiscal deficit from the estimated 2.5 per cent of GDP last year to 6 per cent this fiscal.

The Centre's expenditure stood at over Rs 7.07 lakh crore, while receipts were just about Rs 3.97 lakh crore till December, leading to fiscal deficit of nearly Rs 3.1 lakh crore.

In fact, the government has pegged total expenditure at record level of over Rs 10.2 lakh crore this fiscal, 69.3 per cent of which has already been incurred till December.

Of the more than Rs 7 lakh crore expenditure incurred by the government, 71.5 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 2.51 lakh crore till December, an increase of 44.5 per cent over the last year's corresponding revenue deficit of Rs 1.73 lakh crore.

The government's tax collections at Rs 3.07 lakh crore contributed the most to its kitty.