April-October fiscal deficit breaches full-year target at Rs 6.24 trillion

Total expenditure of the government at October-end was Rs 14.56 trillion or 59.6 per cent of budgeted estimates

Fiscal deficit for the April-October period crossed the 2018-19 target of Rs 6.24 trillion. It stood at Rs 6.49 trillion, or 103.9 per cent of the full-year target, compared to 96.1 per cent for the same period last year, official data showed on Friday, primarily on the back of lower tax revenue and higher capital expenditure.

This puts pressure on Finance Minister Arun Jaitley’s stated commitment of meeting the fiscal deficit target of 3.3 per cent of gross domestic product (GDP) without cutting capital expenditure, in a year when goods and service tax (GST) collections are expected to fall short of