India Fiscal Deficit: Fiscal deficit during April-October was Rs 8.04 lakh crore, 45 percent of the estimate for the financial year.

India Fiscal Deficit: The fiscal deficit in the first seven months of the current financial year 2023-24 has been Rs 8.04 lakh crore, which was Rs 7.02 lakh crore during April to September. The fiscal deficit during the first seven months has been 45 percent of the estimate for the entire financial year. During the same period in the last financial year, the fiscal deficit was 45.6 percent of the budget estimate. The government has set a target of fiscal deficit of Rs 17.87 lakh crore for the entire financial year. 

The Controller General of Accounts (CGA) has released this data on Thursday for the period from April to October. The Government of India received Rs 15.9 lakh crore in the current financial year till October 2023, which is 58.6 percent of the budget estimate for 2023-24. Of this amount, Rs 13.01 lakh crore has been received as tax revenue, Rs 2.65 lakh crore as non-tax revenue and Rs 22,990 crore as non-debt capital receipts. 

Fiscal deficit is the difference between the income and expenditure of the government, which the government fulfills by borrowing from the market. Presenting the general budget for this financial year, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman pegged the fiscal deficit for 2023-24 at Rs 17.86 lakh crore or  The target has been set at 5.9 percent of GDP.

According to CGA data, the total expenditure of the central government during April-October 2023 has been Rs 23.94 lakh crore, which is 53 percent of the budget estimate for 2023-24. Of the total expenditure, Rs 18,47,488 crore has been made on revenue account and Rs 5,46,924 crore has been made on capital account. 

Aditi Nair, Chief Economist of credit rating agency Icra Limited, said that capital expenditure declined by 15 percent on an annual basis in October, which has helped in controlling the fiscal deficit in the seven-month period. He said, ‘Due to extension of the free food grain scheme under the National Food Security Act, higher subsidy on LPG and increase in fertilizer subsidy, we estimate that the expenditure will be Rs 0.8-1 lakh crore more than the budget estimate for the financial year 2023-24.  

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