Fiscal deficit nears 83% of full-year target in end-Sept

Net receipts in Apr-Sept at 33.1% of target

 A day after the Centre took measures to cut public expenses, official data showed India's fiscal deficit or the gap between government’s expenditure and revenue in the first half of the fiscal reached nearly 83 per cent of its full-year target. 

This makes it tough for Finance Minister Arun Jaitley to stick to his budgetary target of 4.1 per cent fiscal deficit in the current financial year ending March 31.  

While the net tax receipts April-September period stood at Rs 3.23 lakh crore, or 33.1 per cent of budgeted target, the total expenditure of the government in the same period was Rs 8.62 lakh crore or 48 per cent of the budget estimate, according to the data.

Fiscal deficit had reached 76 per cent of the full year target in the same period last year. The revenue deficit figures were even more alarming. The data showed the revenue deficit during April-September period was over Rs. 3.45 lakh crore or 91.2 per cent of the full year target. Revenue deficit arises when the government's actual net receipts is lower than the projected receipts in a year.

Of the total expenditure of the government, Plan spending topped Rs 2.46 lakh crore while non-plan expenses stood at Rs 6.15 lakh crore. The government has announced on Friday tough austerity measures to reduce non-plan expenses by 10 per cent in the year 2014-15.

Analysts apprehended that the government may resort to cutting Plan expenses like last year if the revenue collection did not pick up pace in the coming months. A cut in Plan expenses adversely impact the development activities in the country.