Fiscal deficit till Aug at 45.5% of full-year target

India's fiscal deficit touched 45.5 per cent of the full-year estimate in the first five months of the current fiscal.

The country's fiscal deficit for April-August period stood at over Rs 1.82 lakh crore, 45.5 per cent of the annual budget estimate of over Rs 4 lakh crore. The government had projected a deficit of 6.8 per cent of GDP this fiscal.

In 2008-09, the fiscal deficit in the first five months had touched 87.7 per cent of the budgetary estimate, as per the data released by the Controller General of Accounts today.

Meanwhile, the revenue deficit for the five months till August stood at over Rs 1.55 lakh crore, about 55 per cent of the budget estimate of Rs 2.83 lakh crore for the current fiscal.

Revenue deficit in the year-ago period was nearly 180 per cent of the budget estimate by August.Total receipts in the April-August period was about Rs 1.61 lakh crore, 26 per cent of the full-year target against last year's collection of 26.3 per cent of the corresponding budgetary estimate.

On the other hand, total expenditure during the five months was Rs 3.43 lakh crore, which is 33.6 per cent of the fiscal target. The total budgetary estimate of expenditure is more than Rs 10 lakh crore in the current fiscal.

Of the total expenditure, non-plan expenditure was about Rs 2.45 lakh crore and plan expenditure was close to Rs one lakh crore in the first five months of 2009-10.