India’s fiscal deficit has exceeded 55 per cent of the Budget estimate in just first two months (April-May) of the current Year (FY19), though it is still lower than what was recorded in the same period last fiscal, According to the Controller General of Accounts (CGA) data, fiscal deficit during the same period of the previous financial year had stood at 68.3 per cent.
The data showed that the total receipts -- from revenue and non-debt capital -- during the fiscal's initial two months were Rs 1.27 lakh crore, or 7 per cent of the estimates for the current financial year. Out of total receipts, net of tax revenue during the period under review was Rs 1.02 lakh crore, or 6.9 per cent of the estimated target, while the non-tax revenue was Rs 24,049 crore and Rs 1,004 crore of non-debt capital receipts. Receipts from disinvestment stood at Rs 434 crore. Total expenditure -- incurred on revenue and capital -- during the April-May period was Rs 4.72 lakh crore, or at 19.4 per cent of the entire fiscal’s estimate, out of which Rs 4.09 lakh crore was on revenue account and Rs 63,791 crore on capital account.
Fiscal deficit is the difference between earning and expenditure and expressed normally as a percentage of Gross Domestic Products (GDP). The Government aims to keep the fiscal deficit at 3.3 per cent of GDP for the current fiscal, while it managed to achieve 3.5 per cent during the last financial year (FY18). For the current financial year, fiscal deficit has been pegged at Rs 6.24 lakh crore, as compared to the revised estimates of Rs 5.94 lakh crore for the previous fiscal.