April-December fiscal deficit touches 112.4% of FY'19 Budget target on lower revenue collections

New Delhi: Fiscal deficit touched 112.4 percent of the full-year budget target of Rs 6.24 lakh crore at the end of December on account of lower revenue collections, government data showed on Monday. The fiscal deficit, or gap between government’s expenditure and revenue, stood at Rs 7.01 lakh crore during April-December of the current financial year which ends in March. At the end of December 2017, the deficit was 113.6 percent of the Budget estimate. [caption id=“attachment_6004721” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Representational image. Reuters.[/caption] The government has budgeted to cut the fiscal deficit to 3.3 percent of GDP or Rs 6.24 lakh crore in 2018-19, from 3.53 percent in the previous financial year. In the interim Budget for 2019-20, the fiscal deficit was revised upwards marginally to 3.4 percent of GDP or over Rs 6.34 lakh crore, on account of additional outlay of Rs 20,000 crore for funding income scheme for small farmers. According to the data released by the Controller General of Accounts (CGA), the revenue receipts of the government totalled Rs 10.84 lakh crore or 62.8 percent of Budget estimate in 2018-19 till December, compared with 66.9 percent during the same period last year. The government has budgeted to mop up Rs 17.25 lakh crore revenue during the current fiscal. The figure has been revised upwards to over Rs 17.29 lakh crore in the 2019-20 interim budget. Tax revenue was 63.2 percent of the budget estimate, compared with 73.4 percent in the comparable period of the previous year. According to the CGA data, the total expenditure of the government at December-end was Rs 18.32 lakh crore or 75 percent of the Budget estimate. The total expenditure for current fiscal has been raised to Rs 24.57 lakh crore in the revised estimates, from the budgeted Rs 24.42 lakh crore.