According to figures issued by the Controller General of Accounts on Friday, India's fiscal deficit for the five months of this fiscal year from April to August was Rs 5.42 lakh crore ($66.56 billion), or 31.1% of the entire annual forecasts.
According to the figures, overall spending was around Rs 13.9 lakh crore, while net tax receipts increased to about Rs 7 lakh crore. According to the Finance Ministry, the Center aims to have a fiscal deficit of Rs. 16.61 lakh crore (6.4 percent of GDP) in FY23.
In the first five months of FY22, the budget deficit was Rs 4.68 lakh crore. As a result, the budget deficit from April to August of the current fiscal year is 15.7% greater than it was at the same time last year.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman set the fiscal deficit target for this fiscal year, 2022-2023, at 6.4% of GDP, or Rs 16.61 lakh crore, as opposed to 6.7% in 2021-22 during her Budget speech in February.
The Center reported a fiscal deficit of Rs 2.01 lakh crore in August after declaring a surplus of Rs 11,040 crore in July. After the decline during the pandemic period, the July values were recorded for the first time in 28 months. The last time the monthly accounts of the federal government were in excess was in March 2020.
In August, the total spending was recorded at Rs 2.63 lakh crore, a decrease of 3.3%. The amount spent on capital projects increased by 0.5% from the previous year to Rs. 43,658 crore.
The Center gave Rs 1.17 lakh crore to states as tax devolution on August 10 primarily after determining that its collections were doing well with economic activities increasing, which resulted in an increase in spending in August. However, net tax collection was Rs 33,882 crore, down 70.7% from the previous year. The non-tax income increased by 213.2% to Rs 27,221 crore.
In a nutshell, the Centre's overall receipts increased by 4.9% to Rs. 8.48 lakh crore in August, while its total expenditure increased by 8.9% to Rs. 13.90 lakh crore.
According to its borrowing schedule for the second half of the fiscal year, the government has also reduced its market borrowing for the fiscal year by Rs 10,000 to Rs 14.21 lakh crore.
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