Fiscal deficit in June touches 68.7 per cent of year’s target

The government has budgeted a fiscal deficit target of Rs 6.24 lakh crore for the financial year 2018-19. 

As per data from the Controller General of Accounts (CGA), the fiscal deficit up to the like period of the previous fiscal had stood at 80.8 per cent. 

The 2018-19 deficit - the difference between revenue and expenditure - has been pegged at 3.3 per cent of the country’s gross domestic product, or Rs 6.24 lakh crore, as compared to the revised estimates of Rs 5.94 lakh crore for the previous fiscal. 

According to the CGA data, net tax revenue during the period under review was Rs 2.37 lakh crore, or 16 per cent of the budget estimated target. The total receipts - from revenue and non-debt capital - during the fiscal’s first quarter (AprilJune) were Rs 2.68 lakh crore, or at 15.5 per cent of the estimates for the current financial year.

The data revealed that total expenditure -- incurred on revenue and capital -- during the April-June period was Rs 7.08 lakh crore, or at 29 per cent of the entire fiscal’s estimate. American ratings agency Moody’s had said the recent cut in GST rates effected by the GST Council on 88 consumer goods will weigh on the Central government’s revenue collections and fiscal consolidation efforts. “We estimate revenue loss from the most recent tax cuts to be about 0.04 per cent-0.08 per cent of GDP annually,” Moody’s Investor Service said in a research note.