Centre's fiscal deficit touches 62.3% of budget estimate in November: Govt data

New Delhi: The Centre's fiscal deficit at the end of November stood at Rs 9.76 lakh crore, or 62.3 per cent of the annual budget target for 2025-26, compared to 52.5 per cent in the year-ago period, government data released on Wednesday showed.

The Centre estimates the fiscal deficit (the gap between expenditure and revenue) during 2025-26 at 4.4 per cent of GDP, or Rs 15.69 lakh crore.

According to data released by the Controller and Auditor General of India (CAG), the central government received about Rs 19.49 lakh crore, or 55.7 per cent of the corresponding budget estimate for total receipts up to November 2025.

The total expenditure incurred by the Centre was Rs 29.25 lakh crore (57.8 per cent of the corresponding BE 2025-26), out of which Rs 22.67 lakh crore was on revenue account and Rs 6.58 lakh crore on capital account, till November.