India's fiscal deficit as GDP percentage hit 4.56% in Dec

25 Feb '20

2 min read

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India’s fiscal deficit as a percentage of the gross domestic product (GDP) touched 4.56 per cent as of December 2019 with total receipts pegged at ₹11.77 lakh crore against a higher expenditure of ₹21.09 lakh crore, government data released last week revealed. The fiscal deficit for fiscal 2019-20 (till March 31, 2020) has been revised to 3.8 per cent now.

Government’s gross tax collection stood at ₹13.83 lakh crore (53 per cent of the budget estimates). The net tax revenue of the central government was at ₹9.04 lakh crore, 55 per cent of the budget estimates, after deducting devolution to the states to the tune of ₹4.76 lakh crore and ₹2,480 crore towards the National Disaster Response Force.

The non-tax revenue accrued to the centre was ₹2.41 lakh crore whereas other receipts were pegged at ₹31,000 crore, according to Indian media reports.

The government released ₹54,621.14 crore to the states as their share in central taxes and duties as well as ₹6,989.38 crore as recommended by the Finance Commission in January.

As per the recommendations made by the Finance Commission, the states received ₹7,499.89 crore in December last year. During the same period, the government released ₹2,714.03 crore towards various schemes. In January 2020, the states received much lower ₹101.29 crore.

Out of the total government expenditure of ₹21.09 lakh crore, which is 76 per cent of the budget estimates, revenue expenditure was ₹18.54 lakh crore and capital expenditure ₹2.55 lakh crore.

Fiscal deficit was pegged at ₹8.07 lakh crore, which was 11 per cent of budget estimates.

“As a percentage of the GDP, fiscal deficit is 4.56 per cent. The revenue receipts are sufficient to cover only 56 per cent of the expenditure,” the Accounts Review Report of the Finance Ministry said.

Fibre2Fashion News Desk (DS)

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