India’s Fiscal Deficit In July At 77.8% Of 2019-20 Target
The gap between the government’s revenue and expenditure rose to Rs 5.47 lakh crore at the end of July.
India’s fiscal deficit in July was at 77.8 percent of its 2019-20 target.
The gap between the government’s revenue and expenditure rose to Rs 5.47 lakh crore at the end of July, according to data released by the Controller General of Accounts. That’s 77.8 percent of the budget estimate of Rs 7.03 lakh crore for 2019-20.
The fiscal deficit, however, was narrower than in July last year when it stood at 86.5 percent of the FY19 target. The government managed to meet the revised target of 3.4 percent of the gross domestic product in the previous fiscal after it cut last-minute expenditure and rolled over fuel subsidies to make up for the shortfall in tax collection.
In Union Budget 2019, India set a fiscal deficit target of 3.3 percent of the GDP for 2019-20.
- The government’s total expenditure for April-July this year rose to Rs 9.47 lakh crore, or 34 percent of the full-year target.
- Revenue receipts stood at 19.5 percent of the target at Rs 3.82 lakh crore in July.
- Tax revenue in the April-July period was Rs 3.38 lakh crore, 20.5 percent of the full-year target. It stood at 19.8 percent in July 2018.
- Non-tax revenue hit 14 percent of the target at Rs 3.13 lakh crore.
- Capital expenditure reached 31.8 percent of the 2019-20 target, compared with 37.1 percent in the same period last year.
Meanwhile, data from the Central Statistics Office showed India’s GDP growth slowed to a six-year-low of 5 percent in the April-June quarter of 2019-20, as private consumption in the Indian economy weakened further.
A Bloomberg poll of 39 economists had estimated first-quarter GDP growth at 5.7 percent. GVA was estimated at 5.5 percent, according to a poll of 27 economists.
