Finance

Fiscal deficit breaches target due to low GST collections, high expenditure

India’s fiscal deficit at the end of November breached the target and touched 112 per cent of the budget estimate for 2017-18 mainly due to lower GST collections and higher expenditure.

In absolute terms, the fiscal deficit — the difference between expenditure and revenue — was Rs 6.12 lakh crore during April-November 2017-18, according to the data by the Controller General of Accounts (CGA).

During the same period of 2016-17, the deficit stood at 85.8 per cent of that year’s target.

For 2017-18, the government aims to bring down the fiscal deficit to 3.2 per cent of GDP. Last fiscal, it had met the target of 3.5 per cent of GDP.

The CGA data showed that the government’s revenue receipts were at Rs 8.04 lakh crore in the eight months to November, which work out to 53.1 per cent of the budget estimate (BE) of Rs 15.15 lakh crore for 2017-18.

The receipts, comprising taxes and other items, were at 57.8 per cent of the target in the year-ago period.

 

 

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