Center’s fiscal shortfall from April to October is 36.3% of the Budget’s FY22

The Centre’s fiscal deficit from April to October, or the first seven months of the year, is well below last year’s at Rs 20,200 crore as opposed to Rs 39,200 crore.

It is also 36.3 percent lower than the Budget forecasts for FY22, according to data supplied by the Controller General of Accounts (CGA). For the fiscal year, the central government set a budget deficit target of Rs 15.07 lakh crore.

The CGA said a month ago that the union government’s fiscal deficit had been calculated to reach Rs 5.26 lakh crore, or 35% of the budget forecasts at the end of September 2021.

The current fiscal year’s deficit estimates appear to be significantly better than the previous fiscal year’s, when they jumped dramatically, owing mostly to an increase in COVID-19-related costs.

Meanwhile, revenue receipts were 70.5 percent of this year’s budget forecasts, compared to 34.2 percent the previous year. At the same time, total expenditure was 524 percent of the Budget target, up from 54.6 percent the previous year.

Capital spending for the current fiscal year is 45.7 percent of budget forecasts, compared to 47.9 percent last year. India’s net tax collection was at 68 percent of the FY 22 Budget target, up from 35.2 percent the previous year.