India’s fiscal deficit for April-October was Rs 7.51 lakh crore, or 46.5 per cent of the estimate for the year ending March 2025, data released by the Controller General of Accounts (CGA) showed on Friday. Net tax receipts for the first seven months of the fiscal year were Rs 13.05 lakh crore or 51 per cent of the annual target, compared with Rs 13.02 trillion for the same period last year, the data showed.
Total receipts stood at Rs 17.23 lakh crore, while overall expenditure during the April to October period was at Rs 24.74 lakh crore. They were 53.7 per cent and 51.3 per cent of this fiscal year’s budget target.
Earlier, in the Union Budget, the government projected to bring down the fiscal deficit to 4.9 per cent of GDP in the current 2024-25 financial year. The deficit was 5.6 per cent of the GDP in 2023-24. In absolute terms, the government aims to contain the fiscal deficit at Rs 16,13,312 crore during the current fiscal.
Revenue receipts stood at Rs 17.04 lakh crore, of which tax revenue was Rs 13.05 lakh crore and non-tax revenue was Rs 3.99 lakh crore. Tax and non-tax revenues were 50.5 per cent and 73.2 per cent of the budgeted estimate. Tax revenue and non-tax revenue narrowed from 55.9 per cent and 88.1 per cent of budget estimates in the last fiscal year.
Fiscal deficit is the difference between the total expenditure and revenue of the government. It is an indication of the total borrowing that is needed by the government.