India's April-August fiscal deficit at over 96% of target

India's April-August fiscal deficit -- Rs 5.25 lakh crore -- stood at 96.1 per cent of the full year's budget target of Rs 5.46 lakh crore, official data showed on Friday.

The data furnished by the Comptroller General of Accounts (CGA) showed that April-August fiscal deficit was 76.4 per cent of the Budget in the like period of the last fiscal. However, within the first five months of the fiscal 2017-18, the deficit has touched over 96 per cent of the full year's target.

The 2017-18 deficit -- the difference between revenue and expenditure -- has been pegged at Rs 5.46 lakh crore for 2017-18, as compared to the deficit of Rs 5.34 lakh crore for the last fiscal.

According to the CGA data, tax revenue during the period under review was Rs 3.40 lakh crore, or 27.8 per cent of the estimates, while total receipts -- from revenue and non-debt capital -- during the fiscal's first five months were Rs 4.25 lakh crore, or 26.6 per cent of the estimates for the current year.

The data revealed that total expenditure during the April-August period was Rs 9.50 lakh crore, or 44.3 per cent of the entire fiscal's estimate. The revenue deficit during the period under review was over Rs 4.30 lakh crore, or 133.9 per cent, of the estimates.

--IANS

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