India’s fiscal deficit breaches FY18 target at Nov-end, stands at 112% of Budget Estimates

01 Jan 2018 Evaluate

Breaching the budgeted target for the current fiscal year 2017-18, India’s fiscal deficit, the difference between government expenditure and revenue, stood at Rs 6.12 lakh crore for the period April-November 2017-18; 112% of its Rs 5.46 lakh crore Budget Estimates (BE) target for FY18, mainly due to lower goods and service tax collections, non-tax revenues such as spectrum and transfer of money by the RBI to the government and higher expenditure. Over the same period last year, the fiscal deficit was 85.8% of the BE. This is the highest deviation from the BE for fiscal deficit in the first eight months of a financial year since 2008-09, the year of the global financial crisis.

According to the Controller General of Accounts (CGA) data, the government's revenue receipts were at Rs 8.04 lakh crore in the eight months to November, which work out to 53.1% of the BE of Rs 15.15 lakh crore for 2017-18. The receipts, comprising taxes and other items, were at 57.8% of the target in the year-ago period. In addition, the Goods and Services Tax (GST) collections slipped to their lowest in November as rates were cut on dozens of goods to make the new national sales tax regime more acceptable. Total collections under the GST in November slipped for the second straight month to Rs 80,808 crore, down from over Rs 83,000 crore in the previous month.

The data also showed that the government's total expenditure was Rs 14.78 lakh crore at November-end, or 68.9% of the budget estimate, while it was 65% of the budget estimate a year ago. Capital expenditure during April-November of 2017-18 was higher at 59.5% of the BE compared to 57.7% in the same period of the previous fiscal. Capital spending increased in November to Rs 21,320 crore from Rs 16,406 crore in October. Revenue expenditure, including interest payment, was 70.5% of the BE during April-November 2017-18, as against 66.1% a year earlier.


© 2025 The Alchemists Ark Pvt. Ltd. All rights reserved. MoneyWorks4Me ® is a registered trademark of The Alchemists Ark Pvt. Ltd.

×