Fiscal deficit at 25% of FY24 target in Q1

New Delhi: The Centre’s fiscal deficit at the end of the first quarter touched 25.3 per cent of the full-year target, government data showed on Monday. In absolute terms, the fiscal deficit, the gap between expenditure and revenue, was Rs4,51,370 crore as of end-June, according to the data released by the Controller General of Accounts (CGA).

The deficit stood at 21.2 per cent of the Budget Estimates (BE) in the corresponding period of the financial year 2022-23. In the Union Budget, the government projected to bring down the fiscal deficit to 5.9 per cent of the gross domestic product (GDP) in the current 2023-24 financial year. The deficit was 6.4 per cent of the GDP in 2022-23 against the earlier estimate of 6.71 per cent.

Unveiling the revenue-expenditure data of the Union government for the first three months of 2023-24, CGA said the net tax revenue was Rs4,33,620 crore or 18.6 per cent of the BE for the current fiscal. The net tax revenue collection was 26.1 per cent at end-June 2022.