India's April-August fiscal deficit at 76% of full-year target

India's fiscal deficit in the April-August period of the current fiscal touched Rs 4.08 lakh crore - or 76.4 per cent of Budget estimates for fiscal 2016-17 - as against 66.5 per cent of Budget in the same period of last year, government data showed on Friday.

As per the Controller General of Accounts, the deficit, or the gap between expenditure and revenue for the entire current fiscal, has been pegged at Rs 5.34 lakh crore, as compared to the deficit of Rs 5.35 lakh crore in the last fiscal as per revised estimates of 2015-16.

The exchequer's tax revenue during the period in question yielded Rs 2.80 lakh crore, or 26.6 per cent of the estimates, while total receipts, from revenue and non-debt capital, during the fiscal's first five months, were 3.93 lakh crore, or 27.3 per cent of the estimates for the current year.

Total expenditure during the April-August period was Rs 8.01 lakh crore, or 40.5 per cent of the entire fiscal's estimate.

Of the total expenditure, money spent on plan was over Rs 2.36 lakh crore, while non-plan expenditure came to more than Rs 5.64 lakh crore.

The revenue deficit during April-August was over Rs 3.25 lakh crore, or 91.8 per cent, of the estimates.

Major revenues, including income tax and dividends from state companies, are mostly received towards a financial year's end.

The government has set the target of restricting the current fiscal's deficit at 3.5 per cent of the GDP or to Rs 5.34 lakh crore.

--IANS

bc/vd