NEW DELHI: The government has decided to stick to its fiscal targets in the June quarter, as the fiscal deficit stood at Rs 4.29 lakh crore — 68.7 per cent of the Budget Estimate (BE) — driven on account of higher revenue collection.
However, the increasing expenditure remains a challenge, said the data released by the Controller General of Accounts (CGA).
In the April-June quarter last year, the government had reported a fiscal deficit of 80.8 per cent of BE. The fiscal deficit target for the current financial year is Rs 6.24 lakh crore.According to the CGA data, net tax revenue during the period under review was Rs 2.37 lakh crore, or 16 per cent of the BE target. The total receipts from revenue and non-debt capital during the first quarter were Rs 2.78 lakh crore, or at 15.3 per cent of the estimates for the current financial year.Last year, the collection was 13.1 per cent of the BE in the same quarter.
“Although Government of India’s fiscal deficit for the first quarter stood at a considerable 69 per cent of the BE for the full year, this marks a modest improvement relative to the situation in Q1FY18,” said Aditi Nayar, principal economist at ICRA Ltd, in a statement.
The CGA data showed that total Expenditure incurred by the government is Rs 7,07,647 crore (28.98 per cent of BE), out of which Rs 6,20,659 crore is on Revenue Account and Rs 86,988 crore is on Capital Account.
Out of the total Revenue Expenditure, Rs 1,44,915 crore is on account of Interest Payments and Rs 1,16,820 crore is on account of Major Subsidies.
Going forward, the government expects better revenue collection as growth of eight core sectors expanded to seven-month high of 6.7 per cent in June due to better performance by cement, refinery and coal segments.
As per official data, the eight sectors, which also include fertilisers, steel, natural gas, electricity and crude oil, had expanded by 1 per cent in June last year. The expansion in cement, refinery products, electricity and coal was 13.2 per cent, 12 per cent, 4 per cent and 11.5 per cent respectively, year-on-year basis.
Crude oil and natural gas registered a negative growth of 3.4 per cent and 2.7 per cent respectively in June compared to the year-ago period.
Steel sector, however, witnessed a slower growth of 4.4 per cent compared to 6 per cent in June 2017, while fertiliser segment expanded at 1 per cent, better than negative growth recorded in the corresponding period a year ago.
68.7% of Budget Estimate is the current fiscal deficit
80.8% of the BE was the fiscal deficit in the June quarter last year
Rs 2.37 lakh crore was the net tax revenue during the June quarter