Fiscal deficit shows improvement in Q1 on higher revenue

New Delhi: Government's finances have shown improvement in the June quarter of 2018-19 with fiscal deficit working out to 68.7 per cent of the Budget Estimate, mainly on account of higher revenue collection, official data reveal.

The deficit was at 80.8 per cent of BE in the April-June quarter of last fiscal. In actual terms, the fiscal deficit or gap between the total expenditure and receipts was Rs 4.29 lakh crore. The government had budgeted to cut fiscal deficit to 3.3 per cent of GDP in the current fiscal, from 3.53 per cent in 2017-18.

The fiscal deficit target for the current financial year is Rs 6.24 lakh crore. As per the data released by the Controller General of Accounts (CGA), the tax collection at end-June was Rs 2.37 lakh crore or 16 per cent of the BE. The total receipts of the government were Rs 2.78 lakh crore during April-June quarter or 15.3 per cent of the BE.

In the similar period of 2017-18, the collection was 13.1 per cent of the BE. The CGA data showed that total expenditure during the first three months of the fiscal was Rs 7.07 lakh crore or 29 per cent of the BE.

The expenditure was marginally higher as a percentage of BE in the last fiscal. The capital expenditure was Rs 86,988 crore or 29 per cent of the BE, the CGA said.