NEW DELHI: The economic slowdown has started weighing on the government’s tax collection; net tax collection for the six months ending September 30 stood at Rs 6.07 lakh crore, just 36 per cent of the full-year target of Rs 16.49 lakh crore. The collection was 39.4 per cent of the budget target in the same period last fiscal.
Data released by the Controller General of Accounts on Thursday showed that fiscal deficit reached nearly 93 per cent of the budget estimate at Rs 6.52 lakh crore by the end of September. The deficit stood at 95.3 per cent of 2018-19 budget estimates in the year-ago period.
However, experts claimed that this is mainly due to the RBI dividend. “Had there not been a one-time windfall gain from RBI, the fiscal deficit would have been much worse,” Pant said.
The Centre has pegged the fiscal deficit for the current fiscal at Rs 7.03 lakh crore, aiming to restrict the deficit at 3.3 per cent of GDP.
In absolute terms, revenue receipts stood at Rs 8,16,467 crore in September. For the entire 2019-20, the revenue receipts have been pegged at Rs 19.62 trillion.