New Delhi, October 30 (IANS). India’s fiscal deficit stood at Rs 4.75 lakh crore in the April-September quarter. This is about 29.4 percent of the estimate for the current financial year. This information was obtained from the data released by the government on Wednesday.
According to the data, net tax receipts in the first six months of the current financial year have been Rs 12.65 lakh crore, which is 49 percent of the annual target. In the same period last year, this figure was Rs 11.6 lakh crore.
According to the provisional data released by the Controller General of Accounts (CGA) on Wednesday, the gap between expenditure and revenue during the first six months of the current financial year was Rs 4.75 lakh crore of the total limit of Rs 16.85 lakh crore set for the current financial year.
The target of fiscal deficit for the financial year 2024-25 has been set by the Central Government at 4.9 percent of the GDP. Its objective is to continue fiscal consolidation.
According to Aditi Nair, chief economist and head of ICRA, the fiscal deficit is expected to decline to Rs 4.7 lakh crore in the first half of FY2025, or 29 per cent of the FY2025 estimate, from Rs 7 lakh crore in April-September FY2024. This has decreased due to the dividend payment made by RBI at the beginning of this financial year.
He further said that the net tax revenue in the first half of FY 2025 has increased by 9 percent on an annual basis. Non-tax revenue has seen an increase of 51 percent.
Apart from this, there has been an increase due to the dividend coming from RBI. At the same time, revenue expenditure increased marginally by 4 percent, while capital expenditure declined by 15 percent.
The fiscal deficit was supported by a reduction in the central bank’s dividend payments and capital expenditure at the beginning of the year. RBI paid Rs 2.1 lakh crore as dividend to the central government for FY 2024.
According to the data, capital expenditure in the April-September period stands at Rs 4.14 lakh crore, which is 37.3 per cent of the full-year target. In the first half of the last financial year, it was 49 percent of the full year target.
–IANS
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