India's April-May fiscal deficit at 68% of full year target

India's fiscal deficit up to last month during the current fiscal touched Rs 3.73 lakh crore or 68.3 per cent of the Budget estimates for 2017-18, official data showed on Friday.

According to figures released by the Controller General of Accounts (CGA), the deficit in the April-May period was 42.9 per cent of the Budget in the same period of last fiscal year.

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

As per the CGA data, tax revenue during the period under review was Rs 67,668 crore, or 5.5 per cent of the estimates, while total receipts, from revenue and non-debt capital, during the fiscal's first two months, were Rs 85,665 crore, or 5.4 per cent of the estimates for the current year.

Total expenditure during the April-May period was Rs 4.59 lakh crore, or 21.4 per cent of the entire fiscal's estimate. The revenue deficit during the period under review was over Rs 3.23 lakh crore, or 100.5 per cent, of the estimates.

--IANS

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