With the help of better expenditure management, India’s fiscal deficit during the first five months (April-August) of the current fiscal (FY19) has shown improvement. The fiscal deficit stood at 94.7% of the Budget Estimate (BE) at August-end of FY19, better than 96.1% of BE at August-end of the last financial year.
The Controller General of Accounts (CGA) data showed that in actual terms, the fiscal deficit or gap between the total expenditure and receipts was Rs 5.91 lakh crore in the first five months period of 2018-19 financial year. Besides, the government has budgeted to cut fiscal deficit to 3.3% of GDP in 2018-19 from 3.53% in the previous year. The fiscal deficit target for 2018-19 is Rs 6.24 lakh crore.
According to the data, the tax collection (net) at end-August was Rs 3.66 lakh crore or 24.7% of BE. The total receipts of the government during April-August 2018 were Rs 4.79 lakh crore or 26.4% of BE. In the similar period of 2017-18, the collection was 26.6% of BE. Total expenditure during April-August 2018 was Rs 10.7 lakh crore or 43.8% of BE. The expenditure was lower as a percentage of BE in the year-ago period.
As per the Union Budget 2018-19, the revenue expenditure has been estimated at Rs 21.42 lakh crore. The CGA data showed that till August, the expenditure under the head was 43.8% (Rs 9.38 lakh crore) of BE, lower than 45.8% in the previous year. However, the capital expenditure was Rs 1.32 lakh crore or 44.1% of BE, higher over the previous year.
