India’s fiscal deficit for April-February period soars to 120% of Centre’s revised target: Report
The deficit stands at 4.2% of the Gross Domestic Product at the end of February, much higher than the targeted 3.5%.
India’s fiscal deficit for the April 2017 to February 2018 period soared to Rs 7.15 lakh crore, 120% of the government’s revised annual target of Rs 5.95 lakh crore. The deficit was 113% of the target in the corresponding period the previous year.
From April 2017 to February 2018, the Centre collected Rs 12.83 lakh crore in revenue, which is just over 79% of the revised estimates. The revenue deficit stood at Rs 5.24 lakh crore, against the revised estimate of Rs 4.34 lakh crore, Bloomberg reported quoting data released by the Controller General of Accounts.
The network said that the fiscal deficit for 2017-’18 up to February is at 4.2% of the Gross Domestic Product, much higher than the government’s revised target of 3.5%.
The Narendra Modi government incurred Rs 19.99 lakh crore in expenditure from April 2017 to February 2018, which is 90% of the revised estimates, PTI reported. Of this, the revenue expenditure was around Rs 17 lakh crore.