Fiscal deficit touches 52 pc of full year target in first 2-months

The government's fiscal deficit touched 52 per cent of the budget estimate for the full year in the first two months of 2019-20. In absolute terms, the fiscal deficit or gap between expenditure and revenue, was Rs 3,66,157 crore, as per the data released by the Controller General of Accounts (CGA).

The fiscal deficit was 55.3 per cent of the 2018-19 budget estimate in the year-ago period. In the Interim Budget passed in February, the government had estimated the fiscal deficit at Rs 7.03 lakh crore for 2019-20.

The government aims to restrict the fiscal deficit at 3.4 per cent of the GDP during the current fiscal, the same as the last financial year. The CGA data showed that revenue receipts of the government during April-May, 2019-20 was 7.3 per cent of the Budget Estimate (BE). In the year-ago period also, the revenue receipts were at a similar level.

However, the capital expenditure was only 14.2 per cent of the BE as compared to 21.3 per cent in the year-ago period. Total expenditure during the April-May period stood at Rs 5.12 lakh crore or 18.4 per cent of BE. It was 19.4 per cent of BE in the corresponding period of the last fiscal.