Fiscal deficit remains above annual target for second month in a row

The Union government's fiscal deficit remained above the annual target for second straight month in August, mainly on account of the impact of lockdown on revenue collections.

According to the data released by the Controller General of Accounts (CGA), fiscal deficit during April-August was at 109.3 per cent of the annual target estimated in the Budget.

In absolute terms, the fiscal deficit was at Rs 8,70,347 crore. It stood at 78.7 per cent of Budget Estimates (BE) in the corresponding period of the last fiscal.

Fiscal deficit or the gap between expenditure and revenue had breached the annual target in July.

The government had pegged fiscal deficit for 2020-21 at Rs 7.96 lakh crore or 3.5 per cent of GDP in the Budget presented by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in February.

These figures, however, may have to be revised significantly in view of the economic disruptions due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Fiscal deficit had soared to a seven-year high of 4.6 per cent of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in 2019-20, mainly on account of poor revenue realisation, which dipped further towards the end of March because of a nationwide lockdown to contain the spread of coronavirus.

As per CGA data, the government's revenue receipts stood at Rs 3,70,642 crore or 18.3 per cent of BE in April-August. During the same period of the last fiscal, it was at 30.7 per cent of BE.

Tax revenue stood at Rs 2,84,495 crore or 17.4 per cent of BE during the first five months of the fiscal. In the year-ago period, it was at 24.5 per cent of BE.

Total receipts of the government stood at 16.8 per cent of BE or Rs 3,77,306 crore. In the Budget, the government had estimated the total receipts for the fiscal at Rs 22.45 lakh crore.

The government's total expenditure stood at Rs 12,47,653 crore or 41 per cent of BE at the end of August. During the same period a year ago, total expenditure was at 42.2 per cent of BE.

Aditi Nayar, Principal Economist at rating agency Icra, said the five months of data "reveal a sordid tale", with the Government of India's fiscal deficit ballooning to Rs 8.7 lakh crore in April-August 2020 from Rs 5.5 lakh crore in the year ago period, and printing well above the budgeted target for the full year.

Overall, the gross tax revenues remained a considerable 24 per cent below the collections in April-August 2020, reflecting the prolonged impact of the pandemic, Nayar added.

Nikhil Gupta, Economist at Motilal Oswal Financial Services, said gross taxes posted its first growth of two per cent year-on-year in six months but it was almost entirely due to base effect.

Meanwhile, the finance ministry on Wednesday said the government will borrow Rs 4.34 lakh crore in the second half of the current fiscal to meet its expenditure requirement amid the COVID-19 crisis.

With this, the government will stick to the revised borrowing target of Rs 12 lakh crore borrowing for the current fiscal. The government revised the borrowing target to Rs 12 lakh crore in May as against Rs 7.8 lakh crore approved in the 2020-21 Budget.