Fiscal deficit touches 87% of BE in Apr-Nov

Fiscal deficit in the first eight months of current fiscal reached Rs 4.83 lakh crore, or 87 per cent of the Budget Estimate (BE) for the whole 2015-16.
The fiscal situation in April-November showed improvement over the year-ago period as the deficit then stood at 98.9 per cent of the Budget Estimate of 2014-15.
The fiscal deficit - gap between government's expenditure and revenue - for 2015-16 was pegged at Rs 5.55 lakh crore for the whole year in the Budget presented by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley in February.
As per the data released by the Controller General of Accounts, tax revenue came in at Rs 4.64 lakh crore, or 50.5 per cent of the full year BE of Rs 9,19,842 crore.

Total receipts from revenue and non-debt capital of the government during the first eight months read Rs 6.5 lakh crore. The government estimates Rs 12.21 lakh crore receipts at end-March 2016.
The government's Plan expenditure during the period was Rs 2.9 lakh core, 64.1 per cent of the full-year BE.

During the same period last year, the government had managed to achieve 51.1 per cent of Plan expenditure estimate.
The non-Plan expenditure during April-November of 2015-16 was Rs 8.4 lakh crore, or 64.3 per cent, of the whole-year estimate.
The total expenditure (Plan and non-Plan) was Rs 11.4 lakh crore as against the government's estimate for the current fiscal at Rs 17.77 lakh crore.

The revenue deficit during the eight months period stood at Rs 3.45 lakh crore, or 87.5 per cent of BE for 2015-16.
For 2015-16, the government aims to restrict fiscal deficit to Rs 5.55 lakh crore, or 3.9 per cent of GDP.
However, meeting the target would be a challenging task for the government as it was staring at Rs 50,000 crore shortfall.