Budget: Centre breaches fiscal deficit target this year, pegs shortfall at 6.4% of GDP for 2022-’23
The deficit between the government’s earnings and spending this year came at 6.9% of the GDP, while the target was to limit it at 6.8%.
India’s fiscal deficit settled at 6.9% of the Gross Domestic Product in financial year 2021-’22, breaching the target of 6.8% of the GDP, Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said in her Budget Speech on Tuesday.
The finance minister said that for the next financial year of 2022-’23, the government would aim to limit the deficit between its earnings and spending to 6.4% of the GDP.
The government’s total expenditure for financial year 2022-’23 is estimated at Rs 39.45 lakh crore and the total revenues are pegged at Rs 22.84 lakh crore. The total borrowings for the next year is estimated at Rs 11,58,719 crore, the finance minister said. The amount is about Rs 2 lakh crore higher than the current year’s Budget estimate for borrowings of Rs 9.7 lakh crore.
Last year, the fiscal deficit had hit its highest-ever level of 9.2% of the GDP. After presenting last year’s Budget, the finance minister had said that the government had “spent, spent and spent”. She had cited this as the reason for the high level of fiscal deficit.
On Tuesday, Sitharaman also announced that the Union government’s capital expenditure in financial year 2022-’23 will be Rs 7.50 lakh crore from Rs 5.54 lakh crore in this fiscal – an increase of 35.4%. Capital expenditure will now account for 2.9% of the country’s GDP, the finance minister said.
