India's April-August Fiscal Deficit Reaches 94.7% Of Annual Target
As per the data released by the Ministry of Finance on Tuesday, the fiscal deficit for the financial year 2018-19 has reached $81.4 billion or Rs 5.91 lakh crore, that is 94.7 percent of the country's target for the year in five month's time (April to August). In the previous fiscal, however, it had reached 96.1 percent of the yearly target by August.
The government has spent Rs 10,70,859 crore (43.85% of budget estimate for 2018-19) till August 2018, which includes Rs 9,38,641 crore on Revenue Account and Rs 1,32,218 crore on Capital Account.
It received Rs 4,79,568 crore in the same period which includes Rs 3,66,216 crore in tax revenue, Rs 98,332 crore in non-tax revenue and Rs 15,020 crore as Non-Debt Capital Receipts.
The pressure of achieving the fiscal deficit target of 3.3 percent for the current financial year has resulted in the Union government not providing any relief on taxes imposed on petrol and diesel as prices continue to rally. In the FY 2017-18, it met an upwardly revised fiscal deficit target of 3.5 percent of the GDP (gross domestic product).