India's April-December fiscal deficit crosses 112% of target

India's budgetary fiscal deficit for the April-December period stood at Rs 7.01 lakh crore or 112.4 per cent of the budgeted target of Rs 6.24 lakh crore, official data showed on Monday. The data furnished by the Controller General of Accounts (CGA) showed that the fiscal deficit during the corresponding nine months of the previous fiscal was 13.6 per cent.

Till December, the government's total expenditure stood at Rs 18.32 lakh crore (75 per cent of the budget estimates) while the total receipts were Rs 11.30 lakh crore (62.2 per cent of the budget estimates). This is as compared to 67.4 per cent of budget estimates received in the same period of 2017-18.

According to Devendra Kumar Pant, Chief Economist, India Ratings and Research said: "Fiscal deficit in 9MFY19 came in at 112.4 per cent of FY19 (BE) and 110.6 per cent of FY19 (RE)." "The pressure is more visible on the revenue side rather than on the expenditure side. In order to meet FY19 (RE), monthly revenue receipts during January-March 2019 has to be 1.8x of average monthly collections in 9MFY19, which appears difficult to achieve."

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