For the full year 2022-23, the Center expects the deficit at 6.4 per cent of GDP. (file)
New Delhi:
The central government’s fiscal deficit reached 67.8 per cent of the full-year target at the end of January due to higher expenditure and lower revenue receipts, according to official data released on Tuesday.
In real terms, the fiscal deficit or the gap between expenditure and revenue collection stood at Rs 11.9 lakh crore during the April-January period, according to data from the Controller General of Accounts (CGA).
The fiscal deficit for the comparable period of 2021-22 was 58.9 per cent of that year’s Revised Estimates (RE) in the budget.
For the full year 2022-23, the government is expected to have a deficit of Rs 17.55 lakh crore, or 6.4 per cent of GDP.
The CGA data showed that the net tax collection in the first 10 months of this fiscal was Rs 16,88,710 crore or 80.9 per cent of RE 2022-23.
In the comparable period of last financial year, the collection stood at 87.7 per cent of RE 2021-22.
The total expenditure of the central government was Rs 31.67 lakh crore or 75.7 per cent of the revised estimate 2022-23.
In the Union Budget presented by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in the Lok Sabha on February 1, the fiscal deficit target for 2023-24 is 5.9 per cent of GDP.
For the current year ending March 2023, the deficit has been maintained at 6.4 per cent of GDP. The government borrows from the market to meet its fiscal deficit.
The government intends to bring down the fiscal deficit below 4.5 per cent of GDP by 2025-26.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
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