Fiscal deficit in April stands at Rs 1.27 lakh cr

The fiscal deficit in the first month of 2015-16 was Rs 1.27 lakh crore or 23 per cent of Budget Estimates for the whole financial year.
The fiscal deficit -- the gap between expenditure and revenue -- for the whole fiscal has been pegged at Rs 5.55 lakh crore.
The deficit during the April last fiscal was 21.4 per cent of Budget Estimates.
For 2015-16, the government has put a fiscal deficit target of 3.9 per cent.
The fiscal deficit was Rs 5.01 lakh crore or 4 per cent of GDP in 2014-15, down from 4.1 per cent pegged in the revised estimate. The revenue deficit was confined to 2.8 per cent, beating the budget target of 2.9 per cent for the last fiscal.

Revenue deficit refers to the shortfall in total government revenue realisation from the targeted figure.

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley last week had said that the direct tax collection was likely to improve by 14-15 per cent in the current fiscal and there was possibility of government improving upon the fiscal deficit target of 3.9 per cent.
However, he had said that the government would prefer to increase expenditure on social sector schemes instead of improving its fiscal deficit target.
The data released by the Controller and Accounts General further revealed that the total expenditure of the government during April was Rs 1.54 lakh crore or 8.7 per cent of the entire year estimates.

Of the total expenditure, plan spending was Rs 35,160 crore and non-plan was Rs 1,19,457 crore.
Revenue collection was Rs 25,313 crore or 2.2 per cent of the estimate. It was 6.6 per cent of the estimates in 2014-15.
Total receipts (from revenue and non-debt capital) of the government during the two months was Rs 27,094 crore or 2.2 per cent of the total deficit.
The revenue deficit during the month was Rs 1,03,095 crore or 26.1 per cent of the estimates, it said.