Fiscal Deficit above 63%, Revenue Receipts above 82% of Budget Estimates in First 10 Months: Data

The Central government has maintained the fiscal deficit as per the budget estimates of the present financial year. According to the official data, the government may achieve the target of keeping it under 5.8 per cent, writes ETV Bharat's Krishnanand.

New Delhi:The Union government has been able to keep the fiscal deficit as per the budget estimates within the first 10 months of the current financial year and is likely to achieve the target of keeping under 5.8 per cent, showed the latest official data released on Thursday. On the one hand, the government was able to contain the fiscal deficit, on the other hand there was a buoyancy in the revenue receipts as it was able to achieve over 82 per cent of its revenue receipt targets during this period (April 2023-January 2024).

The data released by the controller general of accounts (CGA) under the Ministry of Finance showed that as against the budget estimate of fiscal deficit of Rs 17.35 lakh crore, the estimated fiscal deficit by the end of January this year was Rs 11 lakh crore, which is 63.6 per cent of the budget estimate. The fiscal deficit during the same period last fiscal was at a higher 67.8 per cent.

The fiscal deficit reflects the gap between overall expenditure and overall receipts of the Union government and represents the Union government’s total borrowing in a financial year. Similarly, during the first 10 months, the revenue deficit has been estimated at Rs 4.16 lakh crore as against the budget estimate of Rs 8.4 lakh crore, showing a marked improvement as it is below 50 per cent of the budget estimate. The revenue deficit during the same period last fiscal was 61 per cent.

Buoyancy in revenue collection

The Finance Minister’s budget estimates pegged the total revenue receipts for the current financial year at around Rs 27 lakh crore and in the first 10 months the Union government was able to achieve 82.2 per cent of its budget target as it collected Rs 22.18 lakh crore in the first 10 months. For the last fiscal, the ratio was a bit lower at 81.7 per cent for the same period.

However, in the case of net tax revenue of the Union government, the government was able to collect only 81 per cent of the budget estimates, the same it was able to achieve during the same period of last financial year. This year, the government has collected over Rs 18.79 lakh crore in net tax revenue in the first 10 months as against the budget estimate of Rs 23.24 lakh crore.

Trends in expenditure

Despite it being an election year, the Centre was able to keep its revenue under control. The data showed that as against the budget estimate of Rs 35.4 lakh crore of revenue expenditure, the revenue expenditure during the first 10 months was Rs 26.34 lakh crore which is 74.4 percent of the budget estimate. For the last year, the government spent over 75 percent of its budgeted revenue expenditure during the same period.

The data showed that interest payments alone account for over Rs 8.2 lakh crores under the head of revenue expenditure. The total budgeted interest payments for the fiscal have been estimated at over Rs 10.55 lakh crores.

The data showed that during the first 10 months, the capital expenditure was Rs 7.21 lakh crores as against the budget estimate of Rs 9.5 lakh crores which is 76 percent of the budget expenditure.

It showed that the overall expenditure of the Union government was Rs 33.55 lakh crore as against the budget estimate of Rs 44.9 lakh crore, which is 74.7 percent of the total budgeted expenditure of the union for the current financial year.