April-June fiscal deficit at 51.6% of Budget estimates

 The fiscal deficit in the first three months of the current fiscal stood at Rs 2.86 lakh crore or 51.6 per cent of Budget estimates for 2015-16.

The fiscal situation during April-June 2015-16 showed some improvement over the corresponding period of last year as the deficit then was 56.1 per cent of the Budget estimates.

The fiscal deficit — gap between expenditure and revenue — for the entire current fiscal has been pegged at Rs 5.55 lakh crore.

Tax revenue

As per the data released by the Controller General of Accounts, tax revenue was over Rs 1.01 lakh crore or 11.1 per cent of the estimate.

Total receipts (from revenue and non-debt capital) of the government during the three months was over Rs 1.44 lakh crore or 11.8 per cent of the estimates for the current year.

Total expenditure of the government during April-June was nearly Rs 4.31 lakh crore or 24.2 per cent of the entire year estimates.

Of the total expenditure, plan spending was over Rs 1.14 lakh crore and non-plan was over Rs 3.16 lakh crore. The revenue deficit during the three month was over Rs 2.31 lakh crore or 58.6 per cent of the estimates, CGA data showed.

For the 2015-16 year, the government aims to restrict fiscal deficit to Rs 5.55 lakh crore or 3.9 per cent of the GDP. The fiscal deficit was Rs 5.01 lakh crore or 4 per cent of GDP in 2014-15, down from 4.1 per cent pegged in the revised estimate.

On Friday, the Finance Ministry sought Parliament’s nod to spend an additional Rs 25,500 crore in the current fiscal, nearly half of which will be spent on capital infusion into state-owned banks.