India’s fiscal situation though improved in the month of October but has worsened in the first seven months of the year, as per the data released by the Controller General of Accounts, India’s fiscal deficit, the gap between expenditure and revenue, for the first seven months of current financial year 2016-17 stood at Rs 4.23 lakh crore or 79.3 per cent of the full-year target, as against 74 per cent of the Budget Estimate of 2015-16 in the same period last year, however the situation improved considerably against 83.9 per cent in September, on the back of a rise in indirect taxes and non-debt capital receipts, especially divestment, helping address concerns on target achievement for this financial year. Fiscal deficit for the entire fiscal, has been pegged at Rs 5.33 lakh crore, or 3.5 percent of GDP, in 2016-17. Apart from increase in non-tax revenues due to inflow from spectrum auctions, capital inflows from disinvestments also helped improve the fiscal situation in October.
As per the data, tax revenue during April-October period came in at Rs. 5.30 lakh crore, or 50.3 per cent of the full-year budget estimate of Rs. 10,54,101 crore, as aginst 46.6 per cent of the estimates a year ago. Non-tax revenues increased to Rs 1.68 lakh crore in October as compared to Rs 1.19 lakh crore in the previous month. Further, Non-debt capital receipts, which are largely disinvestment flows, increased to Rs 29,348 crore in October as compared to Rs 12,817 crore in the month before.
The data further highlighted that the total expenditure touched Rs 15.55 lakh crore during April-October. The plan expenditure of government during the period was Rs 3.41 lakh core, 62 per cent of the full-year estimates and non-Plan Expenditure was Rs 8.09 lakh crore, or 56.7 per cent, of the whole-year estimate. The revenue deficit during the seven months stood at Rs 3.27 lakh crore, or 92.6 percent of BE for 2016-17.