At 4.6% of GDP, last year's fiscal deficit breached FRBM Act escape clause

The total revenue for FY20 was Rs 17.5 trillion, or 90.6 per cent of revised estimates of Rs 19.32 trillion, compared with 91.4 per cent for the same period last year.

The Centre’s fiscal deficit for 2019-20 came in at 4.6 per cent of nominal gross domestic product, as against a Revised Estimate of 3.8 per cent, data showed on Friday. This print, much beyond the escape clause allowed by the Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management Act, is mostly due to lower-than-anticipated GDP growth and revenue collections across the board.

In her 2020-21 Budget, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman had already used up the 0.5 per cent escape clause to revise the fiscal deficit target for FY20 to 3.8 per cent of GDP from 3.3 per cent. For 2020-21, she has projected