Fiscal deficit in Apr-Sept touches 83 pc of full year target

India's fiscal deficit has touched 83 per cent of the full-year target in September-end, a phenomenon which Finance Minister Arun Jaitley attributed to rising tax refunds in the first half of the current fiscal.

Fiscal deficit - the gap between government expenditure and revenue - neared Rs 4.39 lakh crore in absolute terms at the end of April-September period.
During the same period of the previous fiscal, the deficit was at 76 per cent of the Budget Estimates (BE).

The net tax receipts in the first half of 2014-15 (April-September) stood at Rs 3.23 lakh crore, or 33.1 per cent of BE, the data released by the Controller General of Accounts today showed.

Talking to reporters, Jaitley said: "Higher tax refunds are getting reflected in the fiscal deficit number. This year there were pending tax refunds estimated around Rs 1.20 lakh crore."

During April-October 20 period, the tax department has made refunds to the tune of Rs 80,850 crore.

The government has budgeted to bring down the fiscal deficit to seven-year low level of 4.1 per cent of the GDP in the current fiscal ending March, 2016.
"It would be challenging to achieve the indirect tax aim. The direct tax target would be achievable. We would strive to achieve the fiscal deficit aim for this fiscal," Jaitley said.

"Even though the fiscal deficit reached nearly 83 per cent of the budgeted amount in the first six months of FY2015, a sharp slippage relative to the target of 4.1 per cent of GSDP is unlikely in 2014-15," ICRA Senior Economist Aditi Nair said.

On the capital receipts side, the government is yet to kick off its PSU disinvestment drive.

The government has budgeted to collect Rs 43,425 crore through PSU disinvestment and another Rs 15,000 crore through residual stake sale.

The government aims to collect Rs 7.36 lakh crore from direct taxes in the current fiscal, up from over Rs 6.36 lakh crore collected last year.

As regards indirect tax, the target is to collect over Rs 6.24 lakh crore, up 20.28 per cent over collection in 2013-14.

As per the data released today, total expenditure of the government during April-September was over Rs 8.62 lakh crore or 48 per cent of the estimates for the entire 2014-15.

Of the total expenditure, Plan spending was at over Rs 2.46 lakh crore. Under non-plan, it was Rs 6.15 lakh crore.

The fiscal deficit was over Rs 5.08 lakh crore or 4.5 per cent of GDP in 2013-14. It was 4.9 per cent in 2012-13.

To reduce the fiscal deficit to 4.1 per cent in  2014-15, the government had yesterday announced a slew of austerity measures aimed at cutting non-plan spending by 10 per cent.

As per the measures, the government has banned first class air travel for bureaucrats, meetings in five-star hotels and purchase of cars. It also decided to freeze new appointments.