New Delhi: India’s fiscal deficit for the April-June period was Rs 2,80,000 crore or 17.9 per cent of the estimate for the financial year ending March 31, government data showed on Thursday.
Capital expenditure shot up to a robust Rs 2.75 lakh crore during the quarter, amounting to 24.5 per cent of the full-year target, reflecting the government’s investments in big-ticket infrastructure projects to push growth and create more jobs.
Total government receipts stood at Rs 94.14 lakh crore, which constitutes 26.9 per cent of the current financial year’s budgetary target, indicating a strong fiscal position.
Revenue receipts stood at Rs 9.13 lakh crore, of which tax revenue was Rs 5.40 lakh crore and non-tax revenue amounted to Rs 3.73 lakh crore. Tax and non-tax revenues were 19 per cent and 64 per cent, respectively, of the budget estimate.
Non-tax revenues shot up as the Reserve Bank of India declared a 27 per cent higher dividend, at Rs 2.69 lakh crore, to the Central government, compared with the corresponding figure of Rs 2.11 lakh crore in the previous financial year. Experts are of the view that the higher transfer is expected to help keep the fiscal deficit target in check at 4.4 per cent.
Total expenditure by the government came in at Rs 9.47 lakh crore, which constitutes 24.1 per cent of the full-year target of Rs 50.65 lakh crore.
The expenditure on major subsidies such as food, fertilisers and LPG for the poor stood at Rs 51,252 crore which petroleum, which was 13 per cent of the revised annual target.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman set the fiscal deficit target for 2025-26 at 4.4 per cent, while presenting the Union Budget for the current financial year (2025-26), in line with the Indian government’s declining glide path to narrow the fiscal deficit to below 4.5 per cent by the financial year 2025-2026. The fiscal deficit for FY25 stood at 4.8 per cent of GDP.
(IANS)
