April-Jan fiscal deficit at 107% of FY15 Estimate

The deficit was 98.2% during the same period a year ago

Fiscal deficit rose to Rs 5.68 lakh crore in April-January period, breaching the budget estimate by 107% which may call for harder measures by the government to meet the target of 4.1% of the GDP for full 2014-15 financial year.

As per the data released by Controller General of Accounts (CGA) today, fiscal deficit during April-January period was Rs 5.68 lakh crore or 107% of the 2014-15 budget estimate of Rs 5.31 lakh crore by January-end.

The overshooting of fiscal deficit is mainly attributed to subdued revenue realisation.

The fiscal deficit, the difference between government expenditure and revenue, during April-January period of 2013-14 stood at 98.2%.

In the Budget speech on Saturday, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had said government would achieve the 4.1% fiscal deficit target in 2014-15.

The fiscal deficit target for current fiscal would be the lowest in seven years.

However, government has increased the 2015-16 target to 3.9% of the GDP as against 3.6% set earlier, as part of the fiscal consolidation roadmap.

Government in January raised around Rs 22,000 crore from offer-for-sale (OFS) by diluting 10% stake in Coal India, bringing down its stake down to 79%.

More disinvestment in blue chip PSUs are likely to take place this month.