India's fiscal deficit for April-August touches 31.1 percent of annual target, data shows

New Delhi: The government’s fiscal deficit stood at Rs 4.68 lakh crore or 31.1 per cent of the Budget estimates at the end of August, as per data released by the Controller General of Accounts (CGA) on Thursday. The deficit figure in the current fiscal appears much better than the previous financial year when it had soared to 109.3 per cent of the estimates, mainly on account of a jump in expenditure to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic. In absolute terms, the fiscal deficit or gap between expenditure and revenue was Rs 4,68,009 crore at end of August, the CGA said. For the current financial year, the government expects the deficit at 6.8 per cent of GDP or Rs 15,06,812 crore. As per the data, the central government’s total receipts stood at Rs 8.08 lakh crore or 40.9 per cent of the corresponding Budget Estimate (BE) 2021-22 up to August, 2021. The total receipts were 16.8 per cent of the BE of 2020-21 during the corresponding period of the last financial year. Of the total receipts, the tax revenue was Rs 6.44 lakh crore or 41.7 per cent of BE. The tax revenue was only 17.4 per cent of BE of 2020-21 in the year-ago period. The CGA said Centre’s total expenditure was Rs 12.76 lakh crore or 36.7 per cent of BE up to August 2021. The fiscal deficit for 2020-21 was 9.3 percent of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP), better than 9.5 per cent projected in the revised estimates in the Budget in February.