Govt finances show improvement in August with fiscal deficit at 94.7 percent of budget estimate

New Delhi: Government’s finances have shown improvement in August with fiscal deficit at 94.7 percent of the Budget Estimate (BE), mainly on account of better expenditure management, as per an official data. The deficit was at 96.1 percent of BE at August-end of the last financial year. In actual terms, the fiscal deficit or gap between the total expenditure and receipts was Rs 5.91 lakh crore in the first five months period of 2018-19 financial year. The government has budgeted to cut fiscal deficit to 3.3 percent of GDP in 2018-19 from 3.53 percent in the previous year. [caption id=“attachment_4866771” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Representational image. Reuters[/caption] The fiscal deficit target for 2018-19 is Rs 6.24 lakh crore. As per the data released by the Controller General of Accounts (CGA), the tax collection (net) at end-August was Rs 3.66 lakh crore or 24.7 percent of BE. The total receipts of the government during April-August 2018 were Rs 4.79 lakh crore or 26.4 percent of BE. In the similar period of 2017-18, the collection was 26.6 percent of BE. The CGA data showed that total expenditure during April-August 2018 was Rs 10.7 lakh crore or 43.8 percent of BE. The expenditure was lower as a percentage of BE in the year-ago period. As per the Union Budget 2018-19, the revenue expenditure has been estimated at Rs 21.42 lakh crore. The CGA data showed that till August, the expenditure under the head was 43.8 percent (Rs 9.38 lakh crore) of BE, lower than 45.8 percent in the previous year. However, the capital expenditure was Rs 1.32 lakh crore or 44.1 per cent of BE, higher over the previous year, CGA said.