Fiscal deficit hits 94% of budget estimate in April-December

New Delhi: Fiscal deficit in the first nine months of 2016-17 touched 93.9 percent of the Budget target against 87.9 percent for the same period a year ago.

In value terms, the April-December fiscal deficit stood at Rs 5.01 lakh crore, or 93.9 percent, of 2016-17 Budget estimates (BE). The fiscal deficit stood at 87.9 percent in the corresponding nine months a year ago, as per 2015-16 BE.

Fiscal deficit, the gap between expenditure and revenue for the entire fiscal, has been pegged at Rs 5.33 lakh crore, or 3.5 percent of the GDP, for the fiscal 2016-17.

As per data released by the Controller General of Accounts (CGA), tax revenue came in at Rs 7.52 lakh crore, or 71.4 per cent of the full-year BE of Rs 10.54 lakh crore.

Total receipts from revenue and non-debt capital of the government during the period read Rs 9.68 lakh crore or 67.1 percent of BE.

The government's Plan expenditure during the fiscal came in at Rs 4.10 lakh core, 74.6 percent of the full-year budget estimate. During the same period last year, it stood at 74.4 per cent.

The Non-Plan expenditure in April-December of 2016-17 was Rs 10.59 lakh crore, or 74.2 percent, of the whole-year estimate.

The total expenditure (Plan and Non-Plan) was Rs 14.69 lakh crore, 74.3 percent of the government's full-year estimate of Rs 19.78 lakh crore.

The revenue deficit during April-December stood at Rs 3.54 lakh crore, or 100.1 percent of BE for 2016-17.