India's half-year fiscal deficit hits 68 percent of annual target

India's fiscal deficit in the first half of the current financial year stood at Rs.378,000 crore, crossing 68 percent of the Budget estimate (BE) for the whole year, official data showed on Friday.

The fiscal deficit for the 2015-16 fiscal has been estimated at Rs.555,000 crore.

According to data from the Controller General of Accounts, tax revenues came in at Rs.369,000 crore, which was 40.2 percent of the full year BE of Rs.919,842 crore.

The fiscal deficit for the April-September compares favourably with figures for the same period a year ago when the deficit stood at 82.6 percent of the Budget estimate of 2014-15.

The government's total receipts from revenue and non-debt capital during the first six months reached Rs.531,000 crore, while the revenue deficit during April-September stood at Rs.269,000 crore, or 68.2 percent of the BE for 2015-16.

The government aims to restrict the current year's fiscal deficit to 3.9 percent of GDP. Its Plan expenditure during the period was Rs.253,816 crore, or 54.6 percent of the full-year BE.

During the same period last year, the government had spent 42.8 percent of the Plan expenditure estimate.

The non-Plan expenditure during April-September was Rs.656,000 crore, or about 50 percent of the full year's estimate.

The total expenditure (Plan and non-Plan) was Rs.910,000 crore as against the government's estimate for the current fiscal at Rs.17,77,000 crore.