Apr-Jan fiscal deficit soars 34 per cent to Rs 3.5 lakh cr

This makes the April-January fiscal deficit at 87.2 per cent of the budgeted estimate of 4.01 lakh crore for the current fiscal.

The fiscal deficit for the current fiscal is pegged at 6.9 per cent, a tad over the previous estimate of 6.8 per cent. Till January, the Centre’s overall expenditure stood at over Rs 7.83 lakh crore, while receipts were way below at around Rs 4.34 lakh crore, leading to a deficit of nearly Rs 3.5 lakh crore. The government had pegged total expenditure at the record level of over Rs 10.2 lakh crore this fiscal, 76.8 per cent of which has already been incurred till January.

Of the over Rs 7.8-lakh crore expenditure incurred by the government, over 70 per cent is accounted by non-plan outgo including interest payments.

Meanwhile, revenue deficit, which is the excess of revenue expenditure like salaries over revenue income, rose to Rs 2.84 lakh crore till January, an increase of 100 per cent over the the same time last year.