The Centre’s revenue deficit stood at Rs 82,400 crore in the first four months of 2007-08, exceeding the estimates for the entire fiscal.

This implies that the government’s expenditure on revenue account, which includes interest payments, are growing at a much faster rate than its revenue receipts, including taxes.

The official figures released by Controller General of Accounts, on Friday, showed that the government’s expenditure on this count stood at Rs 1,77,691 crore compared to its receipts of Rs 95,291 crore.

The government had estimated a revenue deficit of Rs 71,478 crore for this financial year. Interest payments by the government at Rs 48,936 crore accounted for 38.20 per cent of non-plan expenditure under this head at Rs 1,28,094 crore.

Non-plan expenditure on revenue account like interest payments contributed 72.08 per cent of total expenditure, while plan expenditure less than 30 per cent. Tax revenue accounted for major portion of 83.85 per cent of total revenue receipts of the Centre. The Prime Minister’s Economic Advisory Council had earlier expressed concern over  high revenue deficit.

FM confident

However, Finance Minister has expressed confidence that budget estimates would be met. The budget has estimated revenue deficit to decline to 1.5 per cent  of GDP this fiscal from two per cent last fiscal.

This could happen only if now the government’s revenue receipts, particularly tax revenue, increases faster than expenditure on this count.  Meanwhile, the Centre’s fiscal deficit stood at Rs 1,29,408 crore.